Parties are still arguing about the rules on imperial succession

Japan's parliament has failed to reach common ground on a revision of imperial family norms as a succession crisis looms over the future of the household.
Since last year, Lower House speaker Fukushiro Nukaga, together with his deputy and Upper House counterparts, have tried to muster a bipartisan consensus on the imperial rules — with no notable success.
For months, Liberal Democratic Party chief adviser Taro Aso and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda — two former prime ministers — met behind the scenes in the hopes of fine-tuning an agreement.
However, the talks came to an abrupt halt earlier this month.
On June 6, Noda revealed the two sides had preliminarily agreed to allow female members in the family to retain their status after marriage — a stopgap solution to halt the thinning of the household and assure the continuation of official duties.
A few days later, speaking to reporters after a party meeting chaired by Aso, the LDP's Minoru Kihara denied any such deal was ever made.
'We must reach a consensus and pass legislation to fill the ranks of the imperial family,' Kihara said, stressing the necessity of an all-encompassing pact.
The Imperial House Law states that female members born in the family who marry commoners must renounce their titles and leave the household.
The departure of female members after marriage — including Emperor Naruhito's younger sister, Sayako Kuroda , in 2005, and more recently Mako Komuro , Crown Prince Akishino's eldest daughter — has accelerated the dwindling of the family.
Should female members be allowed to keep their status after marriage, the five unmarried princesses still in the family — Princess Aiko, Princess Kako, Princess Akiko, Princess Yohko and Princess Tsuguko — will be able to perform the wide range of duties requested of royals.
Parties across the aisle have supported the idea of allowing female members to stay in the imperial family after tying the knot. However, the LDP has opposed granting imperial status to potential husbands and children — on the grounds that could lead to the emergence of a maternal lineage.
'There is no way someone can become a member of the Imperial Family unless their spouse is a male member of the family,' Kihara told reporters.
The law states that only male members belonging to the paternal line of the imperial family can succeed to the throne. While there are eight historical precedents of female empresses, all of them are said to be hailing from the paternal line.
Following the death of Princess Yuriko last November, the imperial family currently has 16 members. Only three of them have the right to ascend to the imperial throne: the Emperor's younger brother, Crown Prince Akishino, 59, his son Prince Hisahito, 18, and Prince Hitachi, 89, Emperor Emeritus Akihito's younger brother.
Prince Hisahito, who has just entered university in April , is the only male of his generation. In the event he leaves no male heir, under the current rules, the imperial line would end with him.
Calls to review the rules on the imperial family have grown louder after the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito in 2019 and the gradual drop in members of the imperial family.
In 2005, an expert panel set up under the government of then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi put forward the option of a female empress and the establishment of a maternal line to the throne. However, the debate lost steam after the birth of Hisahito in 2006.
Princess Kako of Akishino greets students during a ceremony with the Japanese community at the Nikkei Cultural Center Association in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Friday. |
AFP-JIJI
In late 2021, another government panel recommended a more conservative approach, proposing to keep married female members in the family and replenish the ranks through adoption.
The LDP and other parties in parliament have proposed reintegrating male members from the paternal lineage of 11 families who renounced their imperial status in 1947 during the American occupation.
There's no official data on the exact number and the identity of these individuals.
The government has repeatedly denied possessing any specific knowledge on these families or having made contact with them.
In a hearing with the 2021 government panel, Akira Momochi, a professor at Kokushikan University and expert on the Constitution, said that, within four of the 11 families, at least 10 unmarried male members from the paternal lineage in their 20s or younger were alive at the time. Adoptions into the imperial family are currently prohibited by law.
The opposition's CDP has taken a more cautious approach, criticizing the 2021 proposal for failing to consider a maternal line to the throne as an option. Some, including opposition lawmakers, have raised questions on adoptions, stressing that the Constitution does not recognize nobility and that adoption based on lineage should not occur.
Kihara revealed that, in the talks with Aso, Noda proposed seeking the Imperial House Council's opinion on the subject.
The Council is a body concerned with discussions on the imperial family. It is composed of 10 members including the prime minister, the speakers of both chambers of parliament and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The LDP has fiercely opposed getting the Imperial House Council involved. As such, the distance between the parties remained too wide to clinch a deal in the ongoing session of parliament, slated to close Friday.
The parties are now expected to continue discussions in the fall.
"It's regrettable that our counterpart turned the tables on the initial agreement,' Noda told a news conference earlier this month. 'It's an issue of credibility as a negotiating party.'
Recent surveys suggest a majority of the Japanese public support the idea of letting female members of the imperial family retain their titles.
In a Jiji Press survey conducted last month, 64.9% of respondents were in favor of the idea, while only 10.7% said they were against. Those who were unsure or had no opinion stood at 24.3%.
Popular support for the adoption proposal stood at 39.2%, 17 percentage points higher than those who opposed it.

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