Ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine in accordance with his promise in August 2001 and thereafter. A few suits for the damages against his visiting Yasukuni Shrine were brought into the courts. All suits against these cases were dismissed by all of the courts including the Supreme Court. However, several courts approved the plaintiffs' claims in the 'obiter dictum' as Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine were unconstitutional. In my paper, I pointed out such ways of decisions, which the lower courts ruled on, were beyond the titles granted to the courts and deprived defendants of their rights of appeals to the higher courts.
