Japan's Supreme Court will hand down its ruling on Friday over the lawsuit whose plaintiffs accused Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of infringing the pacifist Constitution by visiting the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in 2001, Kyodo News reported on late Thursday.

Koizumi paid a visit to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine in capacity of prime minister for the first time in August 2001. The plaintiffs, mainly consist of relatives of the war dead and people of religious faith, claimed that his action constituted an violation of the Constitution which stipulates the principle of separating religion from state affairs, and imposed mental suffering on them.

The lawsuit was rejected by an Osaka District Court and the Osaka High Court respectively in February 2004 and July 2005. Neither of the courts issued opinion on the constitutionality of the visit.

The Yasukuni Shrine, regarded as a symbol of the Japanese militarism, honors more than 2 million Japanese war dead along with 14 Japan's wartime leaders charged as Class-A war criminals, who were responsible for the most atrocious crimes during Japan's war of aggression against its Asian neighbors.

Since taking office in 2001, Koizumi has, in defiance of strong protests from China and other Asian nations, visited the shrine for five consecutive years, dragging Japan to an awkward isolation in its Asian diplomacy. His last visit to the shrine was on Oct. 7, 2005.

Source: Xinhua