Source: The Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040317a5.htm

On March 17, 2004 The Japan Times reported, "The Matsuyama District Court on Tuesday rejected compensation demands in a lawsuit that charged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine violated the constitutional separation of state and religion. The court rejected the suit, filed by 133 people and two religious groups seeking compensation from the prime minister, the government and the war-related Shinto shrine in Tokyo, without making a judgment on whether Koizumi's visits violated the Constitution. Tuesday's ruling covered three of the four visits Koizumi has made to the shrine since becoming prime minister. The plaintiffs, including relatives of the war dead in Shikoku, had sought 10,000 yen in damages per person and per group, saying Koizumi's visits, which they described as religious activities, caused them emotional distress. But presiding Judge Mitsunobu Sakakura said in handing down the ruling, 'The prime minister's visits to Yasukuni Shrine did not have any kind of binding power on the plaintiffs, or lead to any disadvantage for them.'"