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Japan must rethink its succession law Published on April 01, 2006
In recent years the Japanese have been involved in serious debates over the future of the Chrysanthemum throne, especially with Emperor Akihito (72) getting old and having been treated from prostate cancer. Known for being punctilious and subtle planners, the Japanese are uncomfortable with leaving important issues such as the imperial succession undecided or open to speculation. This is despite the fact that Akihito has two sons, Crown Prince Naruhito (45) and Prince Akishino (40), who would ensure the continuity for many years to come. The fear stems from the fact that no boy has been born to the imperial family since 1965. Thus no one is practically qualified to meet the terms provided by the Constitution and the Imperial Household Law (IHL) and succeed Princes Naruhito and Akishino. Article 2 of the current Constitution, which went into effect in May 1947, provides that the imperial throne shall be dynastic and succeeded to in accordance with the IHL passed by parliament. The IHL of 1947 limits succession to the throne to males of the male line of imperial descent. In other words, it retained the exclusion of female dynasts found in the 1889 Meiji Constitution, despite several historical precedents in which imperial princesses ascended the throne. Among the 125 monarchs who legitimately succeeded to the throne since the accession of the first monarch, Emperor Jimmu, in 660 BC, eight were females. The last Empress was Go-Sakuramachi whose reign began in 1762 and ended in 1771 with her abduction in favour of her nephew Emperor Go-Momozono. The 1947 IHL also abolished the concubine system in the imperial family, making the situation more difficult. Until Japan�s defeat in the Second World War, boys born to the emperor and his concubines were recognized as possible successors to the throne. It has been said in recent months that Emperor Akihito�s cousin Prince Tomohito leads a campaign to restore the concubine system as a possible succession solution. Tomohito�s argument is possibly based on the fact that Japanese imperial dynasty owes much of its longevity in the male line to the use of concubines. Another reported solution has been the re-introduction of the adoption system in order to enable the Crown Prince and Princess to adopt a male child, presumably from former royal descendants. Adoption, an age-old imperial Japanese tradition, was prohibited for dynastic purposes only in modern times. However, the most supported solution to a potential heir crisis, according to public opinion surveys, is that Japan�s laws of succession should be changed from male-only primogeniture to equal primogeniture. In other words, allowing females of the imperial household to inherit the throne of the world�s oldest continuous hereditary monarchy. This is why Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appointed a special panel in January 2005 comprising judges, university professors, and high ranking civil servants to study changes to the IHL. The panel�s recommendation, disclosed in November, was in favour of amending the law to allow females of the male line of imperial descent to ascend the throne, something that Koisumi pledged to do by the end of Parliament�s current session in June. The first to benefit from the proposed change is Princess Aiko, the Crown Prince�s five-year-old daughter, who will be the second in line to the throne and will have precedence over her uncle. The recommendation was seen as a triumph for the pro-reform camp led by Koisumi, who has been showing increasing support for gender equality in Japan�s male-dominated society. But the conservative politicians, including many prominent members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), hastened to criticize it. To them, the proposed change poses a threat to the imperial dynasty as Princess Aiko may marry a common or a foreigner in the future. A royal announcement on February 6 stating that Prince Akishino�s wife Princess Kiko is expecting a baby in the autumn, however, has temporarily stalled the discussion and forced Koizumi to shelve his plan. If the baby turns out to be a boy, he would be the third in line to the throne, and support for changing the law would quickly dwindle. Otherwise, Koizumi is expected to submit his Bill to Japanese parliament before he steps down as LDP leader in September. Many groups and individuals in Japan, however, seem to support changing the IHL, regardless of the expecting child�s sex, in order to have a ruling empress and consequently a symbol for social reform on women�s issues in the country. This was why The Japan Times, one of the country�s leading dailies, recently carried an editorial expressing its hope that Princess Kiko�s child would be a daughter.
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