The Tokyo District Court on Thursday rejected demands by former Korean soldiers who served in the Japanese military and relatives of deceased soldiers that the state remove their names from the rolls of war dead at Yasukuni Shrine and pay damages.

The ruling was handed down in a suit filed by 414 plaintiffs -- 161 former soldiers and civilian personnel who served in the Japanese military as well as 253 members of the surviving families of such soldiers -- who had filed lawsuits between 2001 and 2005, seeking a total of 4.4 billion yen in compensation.

It marks the first ruling in a suit filed by South Koreans who have sought the removal of their relatives enshrined at the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, which honors as well as the war dead 14 Class-A war criminals, according to a supporter of the plaintiffs.