The Tokyo District Court on Thursday rejected two lawsuits filed against the new national security laws enacted in September without holding any hearings, concluding the cases are not suitable for trial.
The rejections represent the first court decisions on suits challenging the divisive laws, which allow the government to use a recent reinterpretation of the Constitution to engage in collective self-defense, or defending allies under attack even if Japan itself is not attacked.
One of the suits was filed by Eiji Fukuoka, 58, who said the laws break Article 9 of the Constitution, which renounces Japan's right to belligerency.
The other suit, filed by a Tokyo man, called for abolishing the new laws.
"As the suits ask the court to abstractly consider whether the laws comply with the Constitution, they are not suitable for trial," presiding Judge Minoru Masuda said.
Although the judicial branch has the right to examine whether any law violates the Constitution, the Supreme Court in 1952 decided no court has the power to abstractly examine the constitutionality of any law separately from a specific incident.