TOKYO: Opponents of visits by Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi to a nationalist shrine in Tokyo were dealt a legal blow when Japan’s supreme court rejected claims that the visits had caused them psychological distress. The court stopped short, however, of ruling on the visits’ constitutionality.

More than 270 plaintiffs, including people whose relatives died in the war, claimed they had suffered psychological damage as a result of his first visit, in 2001, to Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which they described as a violation of the constitutional separation of religion and state.

The Shinto shrine honours Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including 14 class-A war criminals, and is viewed by many of Japan’s wartime victims as an unwanted reminder of Tokyo’s militarism of the 1930s and 40s.

Mr Koizumi insists he goes to Yasukuni as a private citizen to thank the war dead for their sacrifice and to vow never again to set Japan on the path towards militarism. Many expect him to pray there again before he leaves office in the autumn.

Critics say his insistence on visiting the shrine, whose museum portrays Japan’s wartime record in a positive light, has deeply damaged Japan’s relations with its neighbours. But Shinzo Abe, the chief cabinet secretary and a supporter of the shrine, said the ruling should be enough to silence Mr Koizumi’s critics. “Since this is a ruling by the supreme court, I think it has established a judicial precedent,” he told reporters.

Mr Abe is among the favourites to become prime minister after Mr Koizumi steps down and has indicated that he will continue to worship at Yasukuni. His main rival, Yasuo Fukuda, however, wants Japan to build a new, secular memorial to the country’s war dead.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service