Dec 23 (seattletimes.com) - A government panel has retained Japan’s male-only imperial succession system despite a sharply shrinking number of men in the royal family.
The panel submitted a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday proposing ways to ensure there are enough potential successors, such as adopting single men from some of the 11 now-defunct royal households as potential heirs, and allowing female royals to retain their status after marrying commoners.
Both options would require a revision of the 1947 Imperial House Law, which largely preserves pre-World War II values.
The panel did not address the issue of whether the continuation of the current male-only succession system is workable.
With the practice of royal concubines now abandoned, the size of the imperial family has declined to 17. Emperor Naruhito has only two possible successors — his younger brother, Akishino, and his teenage son, Hisahito — other than his 86-year-old uncle, Prince Hitachi.
His only child, Aiko, a daughter, is not eligible to inherit the throne. Under current law, she must leave the family if she marries a commoner, like her cousin Mako, who married her college sweetheart last month.
The report said it wasn’t an appropriate time to discuss who would succeed Hisahito, who is still a teenager, NHK public television reported.
