Speakers’ Draft on Imperial Succession Circulated

The Speaker and Vice-Speaker of both chambers of the Diet formed a draft of “unanimous opinion” of the legislative branch on securing members of the Imperial Family. It approved two recommendations of experts in 2021, which were allowing female members to stay in the Imperial Family after marriage and reinstating male members of the former Imperial Family along the male line through adoption. Acting chair on this issue, Speaker of the Lower House Eisuke Mori, hopes to implement it by revising Imperial House Law by the end of current session of the Diet. 

Allowing female members to stay has overwhelming support of all the parties. Article 12 of the Imperial House Lawprovides that a female loses the status of the family member, when she is married. If female members can stay, they can share the roles of the Imperial Family. The draft also stresses respect for the will of female members who have been living their life based on current law.

 

The draft did not decide on whether giving status of the Imperial Family to the spouse and children of a staying female member. While some lawmakers with Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) upheld it, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party (JIP) opposed. The draft recommended to add a supplementary provision to take necessary measures in the revised Imperial House Law.

 

More divisive was adoption of a male from former Imperial Family. Article 9 of the Imperial House Law unequivocally prohibits Imperial House members to adopt children not to bring personal preference in the imperial system. As the LDP and JIP give their priority on this option and some conservative opposition parties approve it, some CRA members protested. For them, an adoption without consent may violate the constitution that prohibit discrimination based on family origin.

 

The draft added conditions on adoption. They are the age of person to be adopted, which is supposed as fifteen years old or older, determination about who in the family can adopt and, most importantly, that an adopted child is not eligible to succeed to the throne. With those conditions, the CRA accepted this option. The provision of adoption will constantly be reviewed with consideration of requirement of current law.

 

It is unequivocally reconfirmed that current order of succession to the throne will never be changed. The first successor of Emperor Naruhito is Crown Prince Akishino, followed by his son, Prince Hisahito. Maintenance of the current order was a requirement of the experts’ report in 2021, which separated discussion over keeping members of Imperial House from imperial succession.

 

The speakers handed out the draft to the parties on June 8 and hope to conclude on it by June 10. Based on that conclusion, Sanae Takaichi Cabinet will submit a bill of revised Imperial House Law to current session of the Diet. The speakers hope that the conclusion will be unanimous decision of the legislative branch, which the Emperor Abdication Special Law of 2017 demanded the Diet to have.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

Defense Ministers Meet in Seoul

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more