TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Japan's parliament is moving closer to reaching a cross-party agreement to revise the imperial family law to address the dwindling number of heirs to the throne and safeguard the monarchy.
In a consensus draft drawn up by the leaders of Japan's lower and upper houses on Friday, June 5, as quoted by ANTARA, parliament proposed two major changes to long-debated imperial family rules.
First, female members of the imperial family would be allowed to retain their imperial titles and status after marrying commoners. Second, the imperial family will be allowed to adopt males from the 11 branches that lost imperial status after World War II.
House Speaker Eisuke Mori said that after carefully considering the views of each party, the parliament has formulated what we believe is the best solution.
Concerns about the continuity of the imperial succession have grown as the 1947 Imperial Family Law only permits males of the paternal line to inherit the throne. In addition, female members of the imperial family were required to give up their imperial status if they married a commoner.
This rule caused the number of imperial family members to continue to shrink from generation to generation.
Currently, 66-year-old Emperor Naruhito has only three heirs in the line of succession: his 60-year-old younger brother Crown Prince Fumihito, his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito, and his 90-year-old uncle Prince Hitachi.
Without a change in the rules, the continuity of the imperial succession will depend heavily on Prince Hisahito as the only young heir in the current line of succession. While an important step, the consensus draft does not resolve all the issues under debate.
Some members of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) are still questioning the decision to grant imperial status to males from previous branches of the family who were raised as commoners.
In addition, the draft has not yet decided whether the husbands and children of female members of the imperial family who retain their status will also acquire imperial status.
The draft consensus will be submitted to a meeting of 13 parliamentary parties and groups next Monday. If approved at the next meeting on Wednesday, the document will be submitted to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as a basis for drafting a revised law.
According to sources familiar with the deliberations, the legislation could potentially be passed before the parliamentary session ends on July 17.
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