The Lower House of the Japanese Parliament has given the green light this Friday to the first significant amendment to the Imperial House Law aimed at addressing nothing less than the risk of extinction of the oldest reigning dynasty on the planet. The lawmakers voted in favor of the Government's bill led by conservative Sanae Takaichi, which would introduce two groundbreaking changes to the rule governing the imperial family: one, allowing women to retain their imperial status after marrying commoners, to ensure a minimum adequate number of active members serving the institution; and another, even more significant, allowing the reigning family to adopt males aged 15 or older descending from the 11 ancient imperial branches that lost their status with the 1947 Constitution, imposed by the United States after Japan's defeat in World War II.
This would not only bring new blood to the Crown, as there are currently only three active males - the current Emperor, his brother and Heir, Prince Akishino, and his son Hisahito - but it would also be an emergency solution to ensure dynastic continuity in the future, as the males being adopted would be excluded from the succession to the throne, but their male offspring would be born with succession rights. It is clear that under no circumstances has the possibility been considered for women to become empresses or transmit those rights.
When Takaichi took office as the first woman to lead the Japanese government, she made it clear that she would not consider ending the strict Salic law in the Land of the Rising Sun, despite seven out of ten Japanese people supporting the idea of having an empress on the throne in the future.
The Emperor, the Empress, the Emperor Emeritus, as well as Akishino and his wife, Princess Kiko, have been excluded from the list of potential adoptive parents. In discussions so far, seven members from four families have been considered as possible beneficiaries: the Hitachi-no-miya family, the Mikasa-no-miya family, the Princess Mikasa-no-miya family, and the Takamado-no-miya family.
Following the Lower House's approval, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, aim to have the reform of the Imperial House Law approved by the House of Councillors for promulgation before the current parliamentary session ends on July 17. Everything indicates that Japan will take a historic legislative step in a matter of days, after decades of fruitless political debates that led nowhere. The ruling party currently holds more than two-thirds of the Lower House seats.
The government presented the bill at the end of last month, but a parliamentary deadlock resulting from the opposition's reaction to what they see as the ruling bloc's authoritarian approach to other key laws had prevented the debate from starting.
The bill was drafted based on a proposal compiled by the presidents and vice presidents of the lower and upper houses after hearing from the 13 parliamentary parties and groups, focusing on how to ensure an adequate number of members of the imperial family.
For now, regarding the adoption of descendants from the abolished ancient royal lineages, it is already very complex for boys born as anonymous citizens in 21st-century Japan to suddenly fit into the strictest protocol of any monarchy and be able to represent the nation with suitability. Things you will see, Sancho.