The Utsunomiya District Court rejected a claim Thursday by Tochigi Prefecture residents that the deployment of Self-Defense Forces troops in Iraq is unconstitutional.

The 47 plaintiffs had argued that the deployment damaged their right to live peacefully, but presiding Judge Setsuo Fukushima said it is not a concrete right guaranteed by the Constitution.

It was the seventh court ruling over the constitutionality of the SDF deployment, and plaintiffs have lost all of them.

Ground Self-Defense Force troops completed withdrawing from the southern Iraq city of Samawah in July.