MATSUYAMA, Japan, March 16 Kyodo ...

MATSUYAMA, Japan, March 16 Kyodo

(EDS: CLARIFYING LEAD, ADDING INFO IN 8TH PARA)

The Matsuyama District Court onward Tuesday rejected compensation demands in a lawsuit filed by dint of 133 people and two religious collections over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which they claim violate the constitutional separation of state and religion.

The court ejected the demands in a suit filed against the prime minister, the rule and the war-related Shinto shrine in Tokyo, without making a notion on whether the visits violate the Constitution.

The 133 plaintiffs, including relatives of the war dead from Shikoku, had sought 10000 yen in damages for person and per group, saying they undergoed emotional distress from Koizumi's visits which they described as religious activities.

Presiding justice Mitsunobu Sakakura, however, said in handing down the ruling, ''The prime minister's visits to Yasukuni Shrine did not have any kind of binding power forward the plaintiffs, or lead to any disadvantage for them.''

The visits thus do not affect the welfare of the plaintiffs, the arbitrator said.

''The visits did not place limitations forward the plaintiffs in making their acknowledge decisions or taking action in paying esteems to the war dead,'' he said.

Koizumi has been visiting Yasukuni Shrine each year since August 2001 He has used an official car upon his visits and signed the shrine's visitor work as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to the ruling.

Tuesday's ruling sheltered the plaintiffs' claims over the visits in August 2001 April 2002 and January 2003 They do not include Koizumi's latest visit in January this year.

The plaintiffs are considering appealing the ruling, their lawyers said.

Similar lawsuits athwart Koizumi's visits to the shrine have been filed at district courts in Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka, Fukuoka and Naha.

onward Feb. 27, the Osaka District Court throw overboarded compensation demands filed by way of a group of 631 the community over a visit made according to Koizumi on Aug. 13 2001

The Osaka court recognized that the visit constituted an official service because Koizumi ''went in the capacity of prime minister,'' yet the court did not authority whether the visit violated the Constitution.

Regarded by dint of other Asian countries as a token of Japan's military past, Yasukuni honors 14 convicted World War II Class-A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, along with 25 million Japanese who have died in wars since 1853

Angered by way of the visits to Yasukuni, China has been refusing to take back reciprocal visits by the sum of two units countries' top leaders since October 2001 when Koizumi last went to Beijing.

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