U.N. Hails Women’s Rights in Response to Japan’s Revision of Imperial House Law
The first major overhaul since 1947 lets princesses keep titles after marriage and opens succession to 15-and-older male relatives from former branches.
- On Friday, Japan's parliament enacted a revised Imperial House Law allowing males aged 15 and older from 11 former imperial branches to be adopted into the imperial family, while permitting princesses to retain their royal titles after marrying commoners.
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi prioritized this major revision to reverse the decline in imperial family members, now at 16, ensuring the sustainability of male-only succession and preventing the family line from becoming extinct.
- Critics argue the amendment ignores public sentiment favoring female succession, with a 20-year-old college student in Osaka saying, "I don't think that there have been sufficient discussions or public outreach" from the government.
- Imperial Household Agency officials expressed uncertainty about implementation, with an 81-year-old member from the Kuninomiya branch telling Kyodo News, "I wonder if anyone would actually step forward to be adopted. It doesn't seem very realistic."
- The Emperor remains the "symbol" of the state under the Japanese Constitution, and the Imperial Household Agency pledged to support future adoptees if "they can stand by the people just as the emperor does.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Steps to sustain Japan imperial family leave aides concerned, public split
Officials and staff who work in support of Japan's imperial family are facing unprecedented uncertainty as to how their duties in the royal system will be affected by the country's legal change aimed at making the world's oldest hereditary monarchy sustainable.
The entry into force of the reform of the Imperial House Law of Japan has definitively closed the door to which Princess Aiko (24 years old), the only daughter of the emperors...
The imperial house is run out of male heirs. A controversial law amendment allows adoption and is supposed to help.
The parliament of Japan amended the royal succession law, but they kept the absolute veto on women, leaving the popular princess Aiko out of the way to the throne.
(Tokyo=Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Seong-mi = As the Japanese political sphere revises the 'Imperial Household Law' to secure the number of royal family members, discussions regarding the possibility of female royal succession to the throne...
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