It gave no judgment in the lawsuit on whether his visits violate a constitutional ban on religious activities by the state, even though he signed the visitor register at the shrine as Prime Minister Koizumi.

The suit against Koizumi's Yasukuni visits was the first to involve plaintiffs from Taiwan, which was under Japanese colonial rule between 1895 and 1945.

The court rejected a lawsuit filed by 236 people, including 124 from Taiwan, seeking damages for the prime minister's visits to the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, which they said violated the Constitution.

Presiding Judge Shinichi Yoshikawa said: "The visits cannot be identified as an official action by the prime minister as a state official. The visits did not force anything on the plaintiffs or disadvantage them."

The Japan Times Weekly: May 22, 2004
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