{"id":2016024,"date":"2025-09-12T06:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2016024"},"modified":"2025-09-12T06:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T06:33:19","slug":"imperial-chief-voices-anxieties-about-dwindling-royal-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/imperial-chief-voices-anxieties-about-dwindling-royal-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Imperial chief voices anxieties about dwindling royal family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n    <!--googleon:index--><\/p>\n<p>Japan\u2019s top official overseeing the imperial family expressed grave concern over the shrinking number of royals and called for progress in stalled parliamentary discussions to address the issue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are deeply concerned about the current situation,&#8221; said Yasuhiko Nishimura, who heads the Imperial Household Agency, on Sept. 11. &#8220;We hope that discussions in the Diet will move forward.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The decline stems largely from the rule requiring\u00a0women\u00a0to leave the imperial family upon marriage.<\/p>\n<p>Nishimura&#8217;s\u00a0comments come just days after Prince Hisahito, the nephew of Emperor Naruhito and the only son of Crown Prince Fumihito, marked his coming-of-age ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The 19-year-old prince is second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne after his father.<\/p>\n<p>With Hisahito now recognized as an adult member of the imperial family, there are currently no remaining minor royals.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, legislative debate on measures to ensure the sustainability of the imperial family has seen little progress.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties have been participating in discussions led by the speakers and vice speakers of both houses of the Diet.<\/p>\n<p>A proposal to allow women in the family to retain their imperial status after marriage has gained broad support.<\/p>\n<p>However, opinions remain divided on whether their spouses and children should also be granted imperial status.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding Hisahito, Nishimura expressed high expectations for the young royal, who is now formally taking on public engagements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has performed his duties at each event admirably. We see him as a very dependable presence,\u201d Nishimura said. \u201cI believe he will carry out each of his public responsibilities with sincerity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Due to their dwindling numbers, members of the imperial family are under increasing strain to fulfill their duties, including traditional rituals and public engagements.<\/p>\n<p>More seriously, the system&#8217;s fragility\u00a0threatens the succession to the throne itself.<\/p>\n<p>Japan\u2019s Imperial House Law allows only\u00a0men of the paternal line to ascend the throne. This means there would be no successor after Hisahito if he does not have a son.<\/p>\n<p>    <!--googleoff:index-->\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\twindow.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n\t\tFB.init({\n\t\t\tappId : '137119773101625',\n\t\t\txfbml : true,\n\t\t\tversion : 'v7.0'\n\t\t});\n\t};\n\t(function(d, s, id){\n\t\tvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n\t\tif (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n\t\tjs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n\t\tjs.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/ja_JP\/sdk.js\";\n\t\tfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.asahi.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan\u2019s top official overseeing the imperial family expressed grave concern over the shrinking number of royals and called for progress in stalled parliamentary discussions to address the issue. &#8220;We are deeply concerned about the current situation,&#8221; said Yasuhiko Nishimura, who heads the Imperial Household Agency, on Sept. 11. &#8220;We hope that discussions in the Diet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2016025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[351292,26630,351291,21738],"class_list":["post-2016024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-asahi-shimbun","tag-japan","tag-national-report","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Imperial-chief-voices-anxieties-about-dwindling-royal-family.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2016025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}