OSAKA -- A group of 236 people, including 124 Taiwanese, filed a lawsuit Monday seeking 2.36 million yen in damages over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial visit to Yasukuni Shrine in January.
Among the plaintiffs, who filed the suit with the Osaka District Court, are relatives of indigenous Taiwanese who were forcibly conscripted into the Japanese military and perished during the war.
The suit charges that Koizumi's Jan. 14 visit to the Tokyo shrine has caused considerable mental stress to the relatives of those conscripted because their relatives were enshrined at Yasukuni without their consent.