LDP Finalizes View on Keeping Imperial Family from Shrinking; Diet Discussions Could Start in Early May

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:20 JST, April 20, 2024

The Liberal Democratic Party on Friday compiled its view on how to ensure the Imperial family maintains enough members.

A team within the party under the direct control of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is also the party’s president, concluded that the legal groundwork should be laid for realizing the two plans presented in a report by an expert panel on the issue.

The ruling party will relay its view to the heads of both houses of the Diet as early as this week.

In the panel’s 2021 report, two plans were presented to ensure there are sufficient members of the Imperial family. These were keeping the Imperial status of women after they marry, and using adoption to restore the Imperial status of male members of former Imperial family branches based on their paternal lineage.

In case both these plans fail, the panel presented a third plan, which was to restore through legislation the Imperial status of male members of former Imperial family branches based on their paternal lineage. At the team’s meeting, there were no objections to this proposal.

Moving quickly toward revisions

Now that the LDP has decided its stance on the issue, the ruling and opposition parties are expected to begin discussions sometime around the Golden Week holidays in early May. They are set to hasten discussions on needed revisions to the Imperial House Law.

After the meeting Friday, Seiji Kihara, the LDP’s acting secretary general, told reporters that the party’s view “is mostly in line with [the panel’s] report.”

LDP coalition partner Komeito and opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, have already compiled their own views, which generally approve of what is in the panel’s report.

Fukushiro Nukaga, the speaker of the House of Representatives, had expressed his intention to start talks among the parties once the LDP finalized its views.

If the ruling and opposition parties agree on concrete measures, the government plans to move forward on legislation, including amendments to the Imperial House Law.

“We would like to take the necessary measures based on the results of Diet discussions,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a press conference on Friday.

The immediate issue is ensuring there are enough members of the Imperial family, but the question of how to ensure a stable succession to the throne will also have to be addressed.

A senior LDP official said the plan to adopt male members of former Imperial family branches would “lead to a stable succession to the throne.”

But he noted that “the issues surrounding succession to the throne will be taken up in future discussions.”