Japane Court: Yasukuni Visits Illegal

As much as I sympathize with the court’s sentiment, this NY Times story suggests activism in the extreme:

TOKYO, Sept. 30 – A Japanese court on Friday handed a rare victory to opponents of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to a war shrine, ruling that the visits violated Japan’s constitutional separation of religion and the state.

Experts said the ruling by the Osaka High Court probably would not force the Japanese prime minister to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including those hanged for criminal conduct during World War II. But they called it a symbolic victory for critics here and elsewhere, who regard the visits as a measure of Japan’s lack of contrition for wartime atrocities.

“This will strengthen Koizumi’s opponents,” said Hiroshi Nakanishi, a professor of international politics at Kyoto University. “More people will be encouraged to speak out against the visits.”

Mr. Koizumi questioned the ruling but left his intentions about future visits unclear.

There was no immediate reaction from either China or South Korea, the most vociferous objectors to Mr. Koizumi’s visits to the shrine, as well as to Japanese history textbooks that critics say underplay atrocities Japan committed during the war.

I agree with those who think that this will feed right-wing sentiments. We have learned in this country that you can’t impose social change on an unwilling populace by court fiat. Society has to have a national conversation about the isseu first. That explains why the judicial revolution on gay marriage failed, while rulings like Brown v. Board of Education–which already had widespread support among Northern whites and Southern blacks–succeeded. Japan isn’t at that stage of public consciousness yet.