Diet Leaders OKs Draft of Imperial House Law Revisions

Tokyo, June 22 (Jiji Press)–The leaders of the Diet on Monday broadly approved a government draft of revisions to the Imperial House Law and other legislation aimed at ensuring an adequate number of Imperial Family members. The draft will be presented to a panel of 13 ruling and opposition parties on Thursday. If the panel approves it, the government plans to submit related bills to the Diet within this month, so that they can be enacted before the end of the current Diet session. On Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara visited the official residence of the House of Representatives speaker to present the draft. Lower House Speaker Eisuke Mori later told reporters that he demanded some revisions to the draft. “We need to finalize the details, but we received broad approval,” Kihara said at a press conference. The government plans to revise the Imperial House Law to allow female Imperial Family members to keep their status after marriage and to permit the adoption of male members aged 15 or older from the paternal line of former Imperial Family branches to be adopted into the Imperial Family. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]