Japan panel lists 2 plans for stable imperial succession

Jiji Press

December 7, 2021

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A government panel discussing ways to ensure stable Imperial succession on Monday released the outline of a final report focusing on two plans to secure the number of Imperial family members.

One of the two plans allows female members to retain their Imperial family status after getting married. The other uses the adoption system to restore the Imperial family status of male descendants in the family’s paternal line who have left the family.

Members of the panel, headed by Atsushi Seike, former president of Keio University, agreed to compile the final report by the end of this year.

The panel started discussions in March. In a report released in July, it made the two plans a priority for discussion to address the falling number of Imperial family members.

The July report also showed a backup option that makes law changes to restore the Imperial family status of men in the family’s paternal line who have left the family.

The final report outline presented the two plans and the backup option while noting the two plans should be preferentially discussed.

In the July report, the panel said that the process through which Prince Hisahito, the nephew of the Emperor, would assume the throne should not be neglected.

The latest outline did not elaborate on whether Japan should have a female emperor or an emperor connected to the Imperial lineage through the maternal bloodline.

The Diet called for the government to consider stable Imperial succession in 2017, when a law was enacted to allow the then Emperor, now the Emperor Emeritus, to abdicate. The government plans to report its plan to parliament after getting the final report by the panel.