Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine in August 2001 was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of state and religion, the Fukuoka District Court ruled Wednesday.
In the first ruling of its kind concerning Koizumi's visits to the Shinto shrine, which honors the nation's war dead as well as convicted Class-A war criminals, the court said the visit falls under religious activity that the state is banned from participating in under the Constitution.
The decision was handed down in response to a lawsuit filed by 211 plaintiffs in Kyushu, who claimed that Koizumi's visit to the shrine on Aug. 13, 2001, violated the constitutional separation of state and religion.