Revised Imperial House Law Enforced

Revised Imperial House Law was enforced on October 24th. The law enabled female imperial family can remain in the house after marriage and male member in male line of former imperial families be adopted to the imperial family. Although adoption has long been ruled out, hawkish Sanae Takaichi administration pave the way for it to keep the house in paternal line. Takaichi administration has no plan to discuss more on this highly controversial issue. 

The revision was for reducing works of each imperial family which numbers are declining recent years. To keep female members in the house, the revised law excluded a provision which forced female members to leave the house when she is married. Another major revision was to approve adoption of the members of eleven former imperial families, which left the house in 1947. The adopted members are limited to males in male line of the families.

 

Since Takaichi insisted on enactment in the last session of the Diet, the revision left some questions in management of the law. One question is how the husband and children of female imperial family members staying in the family will be treated in the new rule. The revised law denies imperial status of the families of those female members. Is the wedding ceremony of female members an official event of the family? Are those husband and children will not appear as imperial families in public events?

 

Different treatment between a female imperial member and her family seems to be unnatural for union of a family. There are some arguments from the perspective of humanity. “Considering environment and situation of the imperial families, necessary measures should be taken,” says the revised law. However, Takaichi shows no sign to continue the discussion, satisfied with revision of the law.

 

Another question is who are eligible for the adoption. It is known that there are eleven former imperial houses that left the imperial family 79 years ago. The Imperial Household Agency has not announced who are possible to be adopted. The members of former imperial families are 36 to 38 degrees away from current emperor, Naruhito. Naruhito and former imperial families have the same ancestor in 15th century. It is still controversial that those relatives will be regarded as new members of the imperial family.

 

The revision was only about lightening the burden of the imperial families. The bigger issue is how to make imperial succession stable. To make it stable, some female emperor or emperor from female line. However, conservative people firmly oppose it without any persuasive reason. Although opposition parties that hope to have a female emperor demand to launch a meeting by experts, Chief Cabinet Secretary, Minoru Kihara, denied immediate discussion on it.

 

The people most worried about the new rule are current imperial families. Having no political power, no one including Emperor Naruhito has explicitly expressed their concern. It is necessary for the Diet to discuss this issue not only the aspect of politics but of human rights of the imperial families.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Takaichi’s Surge in Poll

The first poll on Sanae Takaichi administration marked high approval rate among past prime ministers. Although Takaichi failed in maintaining the leading between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito, the respondents positively accepted the new cooperative framework by the LDP and Japan Innovation Party (JIP). However, people are still skeptical about Takaichi’s handlings of political reform over political funds or reduction of Diet seats. In the  poll  of  Yomiuri Shimbun  right after establishment of Takaichi Cabinet, the approval rate of the cabinet was 71 percent with 18 percent of disapproval.  Asahi Shimbun  reported its  poll  with 68 percent of approval for Takaichi Cabinet and disapproval at 19 percent a week after new administration started. The  poll  of  Mainichi Shimbun  showed mostly the same result with 65 percent of approval and 22 percent of disapproval.   Those polls indicated that Takaichi Cabin...
Read more

Sober Leaders of Japan and China Discuss Mutual Benefit

The Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, had her first meeting with the President of People’s Republic of China (PRC), Xi Jinping, in the backdrop of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit at Gyeongju, South Korea, on October 31 st . Both leaders agreed on maintaining a basic principle of their bilateral relations for years, called “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests.” However, it became a meeting without smile, reflecting their complicated relations these years. At the beginning of the meeting, Xi  told  Takaichi that he was ready for development of China-Japan relations on the right track. Takaichi replied that she hoped to reduce various issues between their countries and increase understandings and cooperation to achieve certain result. Takaichi insisted on developing personal relationship with Xi through dialogues. They  concurred  on building “constructive and stable Japan-China relations.”   Two leaders raised a lot...
Read more

Takaichi Delivers Economic Order

At the starting point of her cabinet, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ordered her ministers to grapple with the issues that would be necessary for implementing her promises in the presidential election of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) or the coalition agreement with Japan Innovation Party (JIP). The first focus of Takaichi looked to be on economic policies.   On the first day of her cabinet, Takaichi sent out a letter to her ministers on October 22 nd . Takaichi demanded in the letter to strengthen Japanese economy by changing people’s concerns on their life or future into hope. It contained three issues to deal with: achieving a strong economy, defending people’s life in local communities and enhancement of diplomacy and defense.   To achieve strong economy, Takaichi proposed introduction of “investment of crisis management” and “responsible and active fiscal policy.” She  explained  investment of crisis management to be preemptive and strategic investment on various...
Read more