BBC : Japan rejects war shrine lawsuit

Quote Originally Posted by BBC
A court in Japan has rejected a lawsuit against senior politicians' visits to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine.

The suit claimed that visits by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Tokyo's governor violated the constitution.

The verdict may anger China, as the shrine commemorates Japanese war dead, among them convicted war criminals.
How can the court reject such an important lawsuit ? The fact is that the PM's visit were unconstitutional, due to the separation of state and religion guaranteed by the constitution, and PM Koizumi did make a donation to the shrine using tax-payers' money, so that it cannot possiblt be considered as a private visit.

This question is unrelated to the war criminal issue, and it is usually widely accepted by the Japanese population that his visits were against the constitution. What's more as many as 1047 Japanese (and Korean) plaintiffs filed the case against Koizumi.

In a sign that China, too, is anxious to appease Japan, police in Shanghai have detained 42 people in connection with the recent violent anti-Japanese protests, state media said on Tuesday.

Sixteen of these detainees will be charged with disturbing social order, the Shanghai Daily said.
So China did arrest the troublemakers. That's a good thing.