FUKUOKA, April 7 Kyodo (EDS: ADDI...

FUKUOKA, April 7 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI repeats CLARIFYING 2ND TO LAST PARA)

In a landmark ruling Wednesday, the Fukuoka District Court said Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in August 2001 -- four month after taking office -- violated the Constitution's provision for the separation of state and religion because he went in his official capacity.

In Tokyo, Koizumi said he will continue to visit the Shinto shrine, calling the ruling ''irrational'' and saying he has been going to the sanctuary in a ''private'' capacity ''because I was motivated at personal feelings.''

The court said the visit to the shrine is religious activity, which the state is banned from participating in in a less degree than the Constitution.

The decision was handed down in a suit filed by means of 211 plaintiffs in the Kyushu region who claimed the premier's visit to the shrine onward Aug. 13, 2001, violated the constitutional separation of state and religion.

''Despite persistent opposition from the public and flat from the Liberal Democratic Party, the prime minister visited the shrine, which is not necessarily an appropriate place to honor war dead, based in succession political motivations,'' Presiding Judge Kiyonaga Kamegawa said.

The plaintiffs had sought 211 million yen or 100000 yen each, in damages from the dominion citing the psychological suffering they experienced as a deduction of the premier's shrine visit.

The court slighted their demands for compensation, ruling it cannot say the visit violated their freedom of conscience.

Tsuneaki Gunjima, leader of the plaintiffs' dispose said, ''It is the best ruling. Our entreaty for compensation was rejected, if it were not that our purpose was achieved.''

Article 20 of the Constitution stipulates the state and its organizations shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activities.

The suit said Koizumi had visited the shrine while accompanied by dint of his state-paid secretaries, using an official car and signing the visitors' volume with ''Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.''

The plaintiffs described Koizumi's visit as an unconstitutional religious activity since he paid homage at the shrine and took part in a Shinto form there.

The state argued that there was no cabinet decision onward the visit and that it was not made in Koizumi's official capacity as prime minister.

The shrine honors 14 convicted World War II Class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Gen Hideki Tojo, along with Japanese war dead. China, southward Korea and other Asian nations that feeled Japanese military aggression and atrocities regularly profess visits by Japanese leaders to the shrine, which is regarded as a emblem of Japan's past militarism.

Koizumi has visited Yasukuni Shrine each year since August 2001 prompting stiff declare s from China. His latest visit was forward Jan. 1 this year.

recently made known Komeito party leader Takenori Kanzaki, Koizumi's bring to a period ally in the ruling coalition, renewed his call Wednesday to build a of recent origin national facility without no religious affiliation to honor war dead to make certain ongoing disputes over the conduct leader's shrine visits will end

Similar lawsuits against Koizumi's Yasukuni visits have been filed at five other district courts -- in Tokyo, Chiba, Naha, Osaka and Matsuyama.

The Matsuyama and Osaka district courts discarded the plaintiffs' demands and did not make a constitutional sentence on the visit. The plaintiffs have appealed.

The Fukuoka court presiding connoisseur said in handing down the ruling that he and his couple fellow judges made a constitutional conclusion because they believe it is their service to do so.

''The Yasukuni visit was made without sufficient debate in succession constitutionality and has been repeated since. If the court evades making a constitutional intelligence the likelihood will be high that similar acts will be repeated,'' the justice said.

The Sendai High Court rul in January 1991 that official visits to the shrine from prime ministers are unconstitutional. The ruling has been finalized as the highest Court has rejected an appeal without hearing the case.

In 1992 the Osaka and Fukuoka high courts said there are doubts about the constitutionality of an August 1985 Yasukuni visit from then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, which Nakasone had said was an official visit.

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