Lower House Head Wants Imperial House Law Revision This Session

Tokyo, April 15 (Jiji Press)–Eisuke Mori, speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives, said Wednesday that a bill to revise the Imperial House Law to secure a sufficient number of Imperial Family members should be enacted in the ongoing session of the Diet, the country’s parliament. In the first discussion among ruling and opposition parties on the issue in roughly a year, Mori said that he aims to promptly consolidate opinions from each party. He also urged the opposition Centrist Reform Alliance, which was founded in January, to formulate its stance on the matter within a month. In the discussions so far, ruling and opposition parties considered two proposals presented by a government expert panel–allowing female Imperial Family members to remain in the family even after marriage, and adopting male members in the paternal line of former branches of the family back into the Imperial Family. Most parties were in favor of the first plan, while the second was more contentious. At Wednesday’s meeting, 13 political parties and parliamentary groups from both Diet chambers presented their views, including the CRA and Team Mirai, which participated in the talks for the first time. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party supports both proposals, LDP policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi said, arguing that “the Imperial House Law must be revised this Diet session.” Fumitake Fujita, co-leader of the Japan Innovation Party, the coalition partner of the LDP, said the adoption plan should be given priority. Hirofumi Ryu, former CRA Diet affairs co-head, said that his party backs the plan allowing female members to stay in the family, but is divided on whether to give Imperial Family status to female members’ husbands and children, as well as on the adoption plan. Ryu told reporters after Wednesday’s talks that he will seek to consolidate his party’s opinion before a meeting to be held in a month, following Mori’s call. But many in the party argue that it should take time to discuss the matter. Team Mirai leader Takahiro Anno voiced support for the female member plan but said husbands and children should be treated as ordinary citizens. He described the adoption plan as a promising option. Former Upper House Vice President Hiroyuki Nagahama of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan criticized remarks by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi giving priority to the adoption plan, lamenting the lack of a tranquil environment for discussions. He suggested that a new expert panel could be established under the Lower House speaker and the Upper House president. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]