The Tokyo High Court on Thursday dismissed a suit filed by a group of South Koreans who argued that the government unconstitutionally enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine their deceased relatives, who worked for the Imperial Japanese Army during the war, upholding a lower court decision.

The enshrinement was based on information about the war dead compiled by the Health and Welfare Ministry, the predecessor to the current Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Presiding Judge Hiroaki Ohashi said, "There is no religious significance in the fact that the state collected information about the war dead and provided it" to the war-linked shrine, rejecting the plaintiffs' argument that the enshrinement based upon information from the state represents an infringement of the human rights of the Koreans.

Ohashi also said the ministry "provided objective information it had collected as an administrative organization to Yasukuni Shrine just as it provides various information to any other people upon request."

He said it was Yasukuni Shrine that decided to honor the Korean war dead, dismissing the plaintiffs' argument that the state took the initiative or acted in concert with the Shinto shrine.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs said Thursday's decision is the first high court ruling on the constitutionality of the information on the war dead provided by the government to Yasukuni Shrine.