2014: Lawsuit against ABE Shinzo

Yasukuni-Schrein in Tokyo  -  Prozess gegen ABE's Besuch im Yasukuni-Schrein

TO ALL who are concerned about the Abe administration's nationalistic policy

Let's together join in a lawsuit against the Abe Shinzo's officially visiting the Yasukuni War Shrine in violation of the Constitution.

The Group Supporting Lawsuit Claiming against Offi cial Visits by Prime Minister Abe; Tokyo
2-11-13, Yanagisawa, Nishitokyo-shi, Tokyo, 202-0022
http://homepage3.nifty.com/seikyobunri/

On 26th in December 2013, the Prime Minister ABE Shinzo visited the Yasukuni Shrine as a Japanese Prime Minister and prayed to the war gods who had been the war dead and honored collectively.

The Prime Minister Abe rode on his official car with the formal suite and signed on the visiting book as "The Japanese Prime Minister ABE Shinzo" when he arrived at the Yasukuni Shrine. After that, he walked into the heart of the shrine and prayed to the war gods. This act is clearly identified as officially visiting and breached the rule of secular politics which is stipulated in Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution. We need to raise our voices to criticize against his visiting by way of our specific actions; the lawsuit against
Abe's visiting the Yasukuni Shrine.

The legal purpose of this lawsuit is to confirm the unconstitutionality of the act and to prevent the similar unconstitutional acts in the future. When we criticize the visiting, we would like to focus not only on the breach of "the rule of secular politics", but also on that of "the right to peace". By this lawsuit, we are willing to totally accuse the recent Abe administration's policies such as the rammed Japanese Secrecy Act, the conversion about the exercise of collective self-defense right, the arms exportation, and so on.

For the civil society, this lawsuit is a precious way to directly object the Abe administration's policies in terms of legal aspects.

This letter is to invite you to participate in this lawsuit as a plaintiff or as a supporter. With your participation, the social influence of this lawsuit will definitely become bigger and will make a difference to the Abe administration's policy. The date of fi ling of the fi rst lawsuit was April 21st, 2014, the fi rst day of the Annual Spring Festival, and we have not definitely decided the date of fi ling of the second lawsuit by additional plaintiffs (tentatively scheduled to be fi led on October 17, 2014, the fi rst day of the Annual Autumn Festival).

After visiting the Yasukuni Shrine the Prime Minister Abe stated that he just prayed for the peace. Nevertheless the Prime Minister Abe visited the "Chinrei-Sha", a part of the Yasukuni Shrine, for this time. The "Chinrei-Sha" is a facility to console the souls of the war dead who have died during every wars around the world since 1853 and who have not been honored collectively at the Yasukuni Shrine. Therefore, it means that the Prime Minister Abe prayed at the "Chinrei-Sha" not only for the victims during the Second World War such as those who were killed by Nuclear Weapons or those who were killed by the genocide at the Auschwitz concentration camps, but also for Adolf Hitler at the same time. If you have any relatives or ancestors who were killed during any wars and not honored collectively, the Prime Minister Abe prayed for her or him as equally as Adolf Hitler without any permission of yours.

This support group was established in Tokyo. But anyone can be a plaintiff of this lawsuit regardless of your origin or nationality.


Founders:
Shinichi Kaba 蒲 信一 (Buddhist Priest)
Minoru Zushi 辻子 実 (Light of peace! To "the darkness of Yasukuni" Candle action)
Chieko Seki 関 千枝子 (Nonfiction Writer)
Muneo Bannai 坂内宗男 (Chairman of the Committee for the issue of Yasukuni Shrine ; National Christian Council in Japan)
Naoyoshi Ymamoto 山本直好(No-Hapusa・General Secretary of the Group Supporting Lawsuit Claiming for Cancellation of Collective Enshrinement without Approval),
Tetushiro Yoshida 吉田哲四郎(Co-Representative of the Kanagawa Association for Peace of the War Bereaved)

Anybody is welcomed to be a plaintiff

This is a lawsuit to stop the Prime Minister Abe's next visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in the future. The legal purpose of this lawsuit is to confirm the unconstitutionality of the visiting and to prevent his next visiting. Anyone can join us. Anyone can be a plaintiff from any regions in Japan. Not only Japanese but also people from other countries are welcomed to be plaintiffs.

The defendants are the Japanese Government, Shinzo Abe, and the Yasukuni Shrine.

How to join the lawsuit as a plaintiff
Please sign the date, your address, your name on the power of attorney as well as affi x two seals on the power of attorney. Then send the letter to our address. (If you have not custom of affixing the seal please affi x two signatures of yours.)

Please use your official name in your census registration. Please write down both addresses if you have your registered address and the actual address which is different from the registered address..

Please pay 3,000 Japanese Yen to us as a registration fee.

Your statement about your suffering and damages caused by Abe's visiting is highly welcomed. The power of attorney is enough to become a plaintiff but your detailed statement will really be helpful for us to write legal documents based on the real facts. The paper size is required to be A4 but there is no rule about how to write your statement.

The applications to become plaintiffs for the first filing of the lawsuit have been received by March 31, 2014 (the deadline for the first filing) and now additional applications for becoming plaintiffs for the second fi ling of the lawsuit are being invited (the date of the second filing to be later decided (tentatively October 17, 2014) (the deadline for applications for becoming plaintiffs for the second fi ling of the lawsuit is August 31, 2014)

Supporters are also welcomed>
Please pay 2,000 Japanese Yen to us as a registration fee.