On July 17, Japan’s Parliament made major changes in the law related to the succession of the Imperial Family. Under the new law, the royal family will now be able to adopt distant male relatives of 15 years of age or older and rejoin the royal family. Additionally, women from the royal family will no longer lose their royal status and official responsibilities even if they marry a commoner. However, the most important rule was not changed. In Japan, only men can still become emperor. This means that Emperor Naruhito’s only daughter, Princess Aiko, will not be able to become the heir to the throne in the future. Why was there a need to change the rules in the imperial family? Japan’s imperial family is considered to be the oldest continuously running dynasty in the world, but today it is facing a serious succession crisis. The current emperor has only one daughter. She cannot become the heir, because the law gives only men the right to the throne. There are only 3 heirs to the throne in the royal family. First in the line of succession is the emperor’s younger brother Prince Fumihito, second is his 19-year-old son Prince Hisahito and third is 90-year-old Prince Hitachi. If male heirs do not increase in the future, the succession crisis facing the royal family may deepen. The government had only two options – why did the government choose the second option? The issue of making a woman emperor in Japan has been under discussion for many years. The majority of Japanese citizens in opinion polls have been in favor of a female emperor. In a 2024 Kyodo News survey, 90% of Japanese citizens supported a female emperor. But traditional leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have been opposing it. These leaders argue that Japan’s imperial family has been running on the basis of male lineage for about 2,000 years. According to him, if a woman was made emperor and her children ascended the throne in the future, the patrilineal tradition of the royal family would be broken. He believes that this tradition is the identity of Japan’s monarchy and should not be changed. For this reason, instead of changing the law to make a female emperor or the children of women the successors, the government chose another path. What are the 11 former imperial branches whose children will be adopted? The Emperor has received the right of adoption to choose a successor. But they cannot adopt any child. They would only be able to adopt males descended from the 11 former royal branches. In fact, before the Second World War, the Imperial Family of Japan not only consisted of the main royal family, but also had 11 different imperial branches associated with it. Members of these branches were also male descendants of the emperor and could succeed to the throne if necessary. In 1947, after the Second World War, the American occupation administration and the Japanese government decided to reduce the size of the imperial family. Under this, royal status was withdrawn from 51 members of these 11 branches. They became commoners and their families lost their legal ties to the royal family. After the rule change, the number of male members in the royal family continued to decrease. On the other hand, when the women of the royal family married common citizens, according to the law they also had to leave the royal family. Due to this, the royal family became smaller and the succession crisis began to deepen. For this reason, the Japanese government has changed the rules after about 79 years. Now, male descendants of these 11 former royal branches aged 15 years or older will be able to rejoin the royal family through adoption through a legal process. Women will not lose their royal status if they marry a common citizen. Under the new law, now even if female members of the royal family marry a common citizen, they will not lose their royal status and official responsibilities. This is completely different from the earlier rule. Under the old law, a woman marrying a commoner had to leave the royal family. The biggest reason behind the new law is believed to be the case of Princess Mako. Mako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito, married her college sweetheart Kei Komuro in 2021. The two met in 2013 at Tokyo’s International Christian University. Both of them got engaged secretly, after which there was a lot of controversy regarding this relationship throughout Japan. In October 2021, both of them got married with great simplicity. The procession and grand ceremony as per tradition did not take place. After the marriage, under the law, Mako had to give up her royal status and moved with her husband to New York, where her husband is a lawyer. Mako had also refused to accept the government amount of about 1 million pounds (about Rs 11 crore) that he would have received for leaving the royal family. She was the first member of the royal family to do so after the Second World War. 8 women have become Emperor of Japan. So far in the history of Japan, 8 women have become Emperor (Empress). However, none of them could make their children heirs. She ascended the throne only when no suitable male heir was available or he was too young. Therefore they were often considered temporary rulers and power was later handed over to a male heir. The last female ruler of Japan was Empress Gosakuramachi. He ruled from 1762 to 1770. Since then, there has been no female emperor in Japan in the last 250 years. Then why was the path closed for women? Earlier in Japan, it was not clearly written in the law that only men could become emperor. In the late 19th century, Japan began to make itself a modern nation. Japan wanted to develop a modern army, administration and legal system like Western countries. In this process, the Meiji Constitution was implemented in 1889, which laid the foundation of constitutional monarchy in Japan and determined the rules related to the powers of the Emperor and the Imperial Family. It was arranged that only male descendants would sit on the throne. After the Second World War, a new Royal Family Act was enacted in 1947. In this also the system of male succession was retained. This law is applicable even today. Therefore, even today in Japan, it is not allowed for a woman to become emperor or for a woman’s child to become his successor. —————————– Also read this news… Delivery boy in China got the biggest literary honor: After being reprimanded by the customer, he became a writer, wrote many poems while delivering food. 56-year-old Wang Jibing, who works as a food delivery person in China, has received the Lu Xun Literary Award, one of the country’s most prestigious literary honors. He used to write poems on small pieces of paper in his free time between delivering food. Read the full news here…
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