Claim Over Tokyo Shrine Visit Rejected
Japanese court Thursday turned down a claim for $30,000 in damages over a visit by former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to a shrine honoring Japan’s war dead, a court spokesman said. The ruling fell short of determining whether the visit had violated the constitution, which calls for separation of religion and state.
The group of plaintiffs filed the suit against the state a year after Nakasone became the first postwar prime minister officially to visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, 1985, the anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.
In the suit, the plaintiffs, who include 33 Buddhists and five Christians, asked damages for mental anguish.
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