July 17 (UPI) — Japanese lawmakers adopted measures Friday to bolster the dwindling ranks of the country’s royal family but ignored public backing to permit female succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne in favor of allowing the family to adopt distantly related male kin.
The first major change to the law in almost 80 years Japan legalizes the adoption of males born to former imperial branch families descended from emperors, provided they are 15 or older, as well as allowing female royals to marry outside the family without forfeiting their imperial status.
Males adopted into the imperial family will be permitted to succeed Emperor Naruhito over female members of the royal family, including his popular 24-year-old daughter, Princess Aiko, who remains excluded from the succession.
The children of female royals who marry commoners will remain forever commoners and be recorded on the Basic Resident Register in line with the majority of ordinary Japanese citizens.
The move tabled through by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party coalition drew criticism from the opposition over concerns not enough parliamentary time had been allocated to debate the issues and their push to maintain a succession where only males descended from the paternal line can ascend the throne.
The revision, part of the LDP-Japan Innovation Party coalition’s manifesto, expands the three male heirs who could succeed 66-year-old Naruhito to include unmarried males of 11 former branch families who may now legally become part of the imperial family, which is down to just 16 members.
Prior to the revision, the survival of Naruhito’s line hinged on his nephew, Prince Hisahito, producing a male heir.
The other two immediate heirs to Naruhito are his brother, Crown Prince Fumihito, and his uncle — but they are aged 60 and 90-years-old, respectively.
The throne has been passed down through the male line for all of its history, said to be more than 26 centuries, although there is doubt over whether some of the earlier emperors were real; several of those whose existence has been confirmed were female.
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