LDP Team Discusses Stable Imperial Succession; Kishida Wants Prompt Conclusion

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, March 20, 2024

The Liberal Democratic Party held a meeting on securing a stable Imperial succession at the party headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.

It was the first meeting of the LDP team, which is directly under the control of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, to discuss the issue in four months since its inaugural meeting in November last year. This time, the team started examining specific plans that had been proposed by an expert panel on securing a sufficient number of Imperial family members.

Since the prime minister wants the team to reach a conclusion promptly, the party is prepared to accelerate discussions on the matter.

“We’d like to have a deeper discussion on each specific measure,” LDP Vice President Taro Aso, the head of the team, said at the meeting. “The way of the Imperial household’s existence is an important issue that constitutes the basis of this country.”

At the meeting on Monday, the team exchanged opinions on the plan to keep the Imperial status of female members of the Imperial family after they marry. None of the attendees objected, and most of them expressed understanding of the proposal, one of the two plans in a report by the expert panel on maintaining a sufficient number of Imperial family members.

At the next meeting, the team will examine the second plan, which is about using adoption to revive the Imperial status of male members of former Imperial family branches, based on their paternal Imperial lineage.

According to sources close to Kishida, the prime minister is showing his willingness to revise the Imperial House Law as he has included stable Imperial succession in the list of policy objectives he aims to accomplish, along with economic recovery and addressing other issues.

Discussions on securing a sufficient number of Imperial family members are gathering momentum among both ruling and opposition parties. Komeito, the LDP’s coalition partner, is planning to announce the party’s view on the issue by the end of March.