Govt Spokesman Says Imperial Family Adoptees’ Sons Could Inherit Throne

Tokyo, June 26 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Friday that the sons of adoptees into the Imperial Family would have the right to inherit the throne, despite a fierce backlash from opposition parties when House of Representatives Speaker Eisuke Mori expressed a similar view. The remark may affect the government’s efforts to revise the Imperial House Law to secure a sufficient number of Imperial Family members, including by allowing the Imperial Family to adopt male, paternal-line descendants of former Imperial Family branches. At a press conference on Friday, Kihara pointed out that the consensus reached by the ruling and opposition parties does not mention whether adoptees’ descendants would have the right to inherit the throne. The top government spokesman added that Article 1 of the Imperial House Law, which stipulates that the Imperial throne shall be succeeded by a male in the male line of the Imperial Family, will therefore continue to apply. “Given Article 1, (adoptees’ sons) would have the right to succeed,” he noted. Some opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, are cautious about allowing adoptions into the Imperial Family. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]