Japan Revises Imperial House Law for 1st Time in 79 Years

Tokyo, July 17 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, enacted a bill Friday to revise the Imperial House Law as part of efforts to secure a sufficient number of Imperial Family members, marking the first substantive change to the law since its establishment in 1947. The bill was approved at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, by a majority vote with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, as well as the Japan Innovation Party, the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito. The House of Representatives, the lower chamber, passed the bill July 10. The revised law will allow the Imperial Family to adopt male paternal-line descendants of the 11 former Imperial Family branches and enable female members of the Imperial Family to retain their Imperial status after marriage. The amendment emphasizes “male-line succession,” a principle advocated by the government and the ruling parties. Under the revised law, adopted former Imperial Family members and their male-line descendants will be eligible to succeed to the throne. However, persistent objections remain, and building broad public consensus will be a key challenge. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]