TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhuanet) -- A Japanese district court on Wednesday ruled that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a controversial war shrine violates the constitution. The ruling, the first of its kind against Koizumi's visits, is a fair judgmentwidely welcomed by the people of Japan and other Asian countries.

    The Yasukuni Shrine, located in central Tokyo, is known to honor 14 Class-A World War II criminals, whose hands were stained with the blood of the peoples of Asian countries.

    Visits to such a notorious place by Koizumi and other Japanese senior officials is not only a violation of the constitution, but also a clear demonstration of their attitude towards Japan's history of aggression. Instead of repenting their past mistakes they are working to promote the revival of Japanese militarism.

    However, throwing away his conscience, Koizumi has maintained that he does not understand why his visits are unconstitutional and has pledged to continue them.

    Koizumi has paid four visits to the shrine since he came to power in 2001, arousing strong discontent and protests from neighboring Asian nations that have suffered from military invasions by the Japanese army.

    After Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine in the name of "Japan's prime minister" on August 13, 2001, peace-loving people across Japan staged strong protests against the visit which violated the constitutional separation of religion and state.

    A group of Japanese in the Kyushu region in west Japan firstly filed a suit against Koizumi over the visit to the Osaka District Court on Nov. 1 2001.

    To date, seven such suits have been filed to six district courts in Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka, Matsuyama, Fukuoka and Naha.

    Wednesday's ruling by Fukuoka District Court is undoubtedly good news to the peace-loving people in Japan, the Asian countriesas well as the whole world.

    It also serves as a caution to Koizumi and right-wing politicalforces which have persistently denied Japan's ignominious history and beautified the past aggressions.

    The ruling will no doubt have a far-reaching influence on similar suits filed elsewhere in Japan.

    Leaders of opposition Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party said Koizumi should sincerely accept the court ruling and stop further visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. Enditem