Top Court Dismisses Appeal over Enshrinement at Yasukuni

   Tokyo, Jan. 17 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Supreme Court dismissed on Friday an appeal filed by South Korean plaintiffs in a lawsuit to seek damages from the Japanese government over the enshrinement of their fathers at war-related Yasukuni Shrine, finalizing a high court ruling against them.
   Kazumi Okamura, presiding justice of the Second Petty Bench, cited a 20-year statute of limitations for filing a damages claim.
   In the lawsuit, the bereaved families complained that the government provided information about their fathers, killed in war as soldiers and civilian workers of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army, to the Shinto shrine in Tokyo, which honors not only the war dead but Class-A war criminals, without permission and they were enshrined there.
   Okamura said it was apparent that the 20 years had passed because the enshrinement took place in 1959 and the damages suit was filed in 2013. Meanwhile, he refrained from judging whether the government's supply of the information is illegal or not.
   Of the four justices of the petty bench, three supported the statutory limitation. But Mamoru Miura, the remaining justice, called for sending the case back to Tokyo High Court.

(2025/01/17-23:01)