The Osaka High Court on Friday found unconstitutional Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's three visits to Yasukuni Shrine from 2001 to 2003. The court said the visits violated Article 20, Section 3, of the Constitution, which prohibits religious education and any other "religious" activity by the state and its organs.
The ruling came only a day after a separate decision by the Tokyo High Court dismissed an appeal by 39 plaintiffs who had sought damages for Mr. Koizumi's August 2001 visit to the shrine. Even so, the Osaka High Court's decision carries great weight in that it represented the first decision by a high court to find Mr. Koizumi's Yasukuni visits unconstitutional and marked the second "unconstitutional" ruling to date following the one by Fukuoka District Court in April 2004.
Technically, however, the prime minister and the state won the Osaka lawsuit because the high court denied any compensation to the plaintiffs, who had claimed that they suffered psychological pain as a result of the Yasukuni visits. If the plaintiffs decide not to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, the ruling will become final since the prime minister and the state, as victors in the lawsuit, cannot appeal.