Japan Diet’s Draft Proposal on Imperial Family Seen OK’d on Wed.

Tokyo, June 9 (Jiji Press)–The leaders and vice leaders of both chambers of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, will seek political parties’ approval as early as Wednesday for a draft proposal on measures to secure a sufficient number of Imperial Family members. If the draft proposal is adopted, it will be regarded as the consensus of Japan’s legislative branch. The Diet leaders plan to then ask Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi within Wednesday to consider revising the Imperial House Law. The government and the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling bloc aim to have a bill to revise the law enacted during the current Diet session through July 17, but some opposition parties are strongly opposed to parts of the draft. The proposal also cannot be said to have gained broad public understanding. At a meeting with the ruling and opposition parties on Monday, the Diet leaders presented the draft proposal, which backs the two plans compiled by a government panel of experts in 2021 for securing a sufficient number of Imperial Family members as part of efforts to ensure stable succession to the throne. One of the two measures is allowing female members of the Imperial Family to retain their Imperial status after marriage, while the other is adopting male members in the paternal line of former Imperial Family branches back into the family. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition force in the House of Councillors, the upper Diet chamber, discussed the draft proposal on Tuesday. CDP members agreed to leave a decision on the party’s stance on the proposal to former Upper House Vice President Hiroyuki Nagahama, who will attend Wednesday’s meeting on behalf of the CDP. CDP members are cautious about the adoption plan and criticized a remark by Eisuke Mori, speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower Diet chamber, who said Monday that the male children of those to be adopted back into the Imperial Family should have the right of succession to the Imperial throne. “The men from the 11 Imperial Family branches (that left the family in October 1947) who are to be adopted would not have the right of Imperial succession, but if boys are born, they would hold the right,” Mori told a press conference held after Monday’s meeting with the ruling and opposition parties. The remark came in spite of discussions hitherto having been focused on securing enough Imperial Family members and not on ensuring stable Imperial succession. The Diet leaders’ draft proposal contains no reference to the qualifications of adoptees’ children regarding the succession to the throne while noting that the adoptees themselves would not have the succession right. Mori released a statement Tuesday clarifying that he was merely noting an interpretation of the current Imperial House Law. His remark in question “was not intended to preempt or narrow future considerations,” Mori said. Attendees of Tuesday’s CDP meeting called for a study on allowing the country to have female emperors or emperors from the maternal line of the Imperial Family. Nagahama told reporters that his party will call for careful considerations on the adoption plan, urging the Diet leaders not to rush for a conclusion on the matter. “Discussing the Diet’s consensus proposal based also on opinions to be put forward at Wednesday’s meeting is a democratic process,” he said. Meanwhile, the ruling LDP unanimously approved the draft consensus proposal at a party meeting Tuesday. Komeito, the LDP’s former coalition partner and now an opposition party, also broadly approved the draft the same day. The Japan Innovation Party, the LDP’s current partner, and four opposition parties–the Democratic Party for the People, the Centrist Reform Alliance, Sanseito and Team Mirai–expressed broad support for the draft at Monday’s meeting. The Japanese Communist Party voiced opposition to the draft on Monday, seeking discussions on female emperors or emperors from the maternal Imperial Family line. The Diet leaders are preparing to hand the consensus proposal to Takaichi on Wednesday, according to an LDP source. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]