Japanese Cabinet approves bill to revise rules on imperial family to ensure the continuation of the imperial system amid concerns over the shrinking number of imperial family members.
However, the government still maintains a system of succession to the throne that only goes through the male line from the father's side, even though the number of potential heirs continues to decrease.
The ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner, the Japan Innovation Party, is targeting the bill to revise the 1947 Imperial House Law to be passed before the current parliamentary session ends on July 17.
The bill has two main points, namely allowing the imperial family to adopt men aged at least 15 years old who come from the male lineage of 11 branches of the previous imperial family, and allowing female members of the imperial family to retain their imperial status after marrying ordinary citizens.
Through the revision, adopted men will be an exception to the current law's provision prohibiting adoption. However, they themselves are not allowed to become emperors. However, their male descendants still have the right to be candidates for the Chrysanthemum Throne.
The proposal reflects the LDP's conservative stance and is expected to face rejection from opposition parties in parliamentary discussions, given that changes to the imperial succession system have almost never been discussed in depth in cross-party forums discussing the revision of the law.
As reported by ANTARA from Kyodo, Tuesday, June 30, in the forum, the Chair and Vice Chair of the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors listened to the views of all 13 parties and parliamentary groups before drafting a common agreement which later became the basis for drafting the bill.
However, the bill does not include provisions regarding the possibility of women or descendants of the mother's line becoming heirs to the throne, although the idea has received widespread support from the public.
Based on current laws, only men who are descendants of an emperor through the father's line are entitled to the throne. Meanwhile, female members of the imperial family will lose their imperial status after marriage. This condition causes the number of members of the imperial family and potential heirs to continue to decline.
Currently, there are only three candidates for the Japanese Emperor Naruhito's (66) heir, namely the Emperor's younger brother, Crown Prince Fumihito (60), the Emperor's nephew, Prince Hisahito (19) and the Emperor's uncle, Prince Hitachi who is 90 years old.
The eleven branches of the imperial family have the same ancestry as the current imperial family, which lived about 600 years ago.
In 1947, 51 members of 11 branches of the family were stripped of their noble status, while three families who were descendants of Emperor Hirohito's brothers - who later became known as Emperor Showa - still maintained imperial status based on the policy of the US occupation government after World War II.
The two proposed revisions were actually recommended by a government panel in 2021. However, the panel did not discuss the possibility of women or descendants of the mother's line becoming heirs to the throne on the grounds that discussing the issue was still too early.
Meanwhile, the results of a poll conducted by Kyodo News in May showed that 83 percent of respondents supported the possibility of Japan having a female emperor.
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