Lawyers, plaintiffs hold press conference to slam Japanese PM's Yasukuni visit

Lawyer and plaintiffs on Friday criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's controversial visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine late 2013, saying the worship hurt victims of Japan's wartime atrocities.

Their criticism came after their fifth oral proceeding of their lawsuit against the prime minister over his Yasukuni visit at Tokyo District Court. A total of 363 plaintiffs are involved in the suit and the accused are Abe, the Yasukuni Shrine and the Japanese government.

Lou Xian, a Chinese lawyer, said at a press conference that Class-A war criminals including those who took the responsibility for the Nanjing Massacre and Japan's germ warfare against Chinese people are enshrined in the notorious Yasukuni, and therefore, the visit to the shrine by Abe, as a national leader, was a move to deny Japan's war of aggression against China and angered Chinese people.

Yogo Kimura, head of the lawyers who filed the suit, said during the press meeting held by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan that the visit to Yasukuni by the prime minister violates the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state so that such a move is unconstitutional.

Kimura said verdict on similar case against then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Yasukuni worship said the move was unconstitutional but the verdict was not announced since the plaintiffs demanded no damages, adding that this time they will demand the court declaring the rule by asking damages for over 300 plaintiffs.

He also said they asked for six more hearings on the case over the nature of the Yasukuni, separation of church and state and other issues, but the court only allowed them to have one more hearing on all issues, so the time is more precious.

Wang Xuan, the representative of the plaintiffs, told reporters that she is satisfied to work with some Japanese lawyers as the cooperation is the hope for China-Japan friendship and she said she hopes there is no more war between the two countries.

According to Kimura, the lawsuit was firstly filed in April 2014 and additional plaintiffs filed another one in October that year. The two cases were merged in March 2015.

The plaintiffs include over 240 people who are from China and the rest of about 120 are from Japan, Canada and Germany and other places. Endi