Japan revises law to ensure supply of (male) heirs to the imperial throne
Japan's parliament has passed revisions to the Imperial House Law to address the dwindling number of imperial family members. While the law allows princesses to retain royal status after marriage and permits the adoption of male relatives, it continues to bar women from inheriting the throne.
Why it matters
The legislation highlights the ongoing tension between modernizing the world's oldest hereditary monarchy and maintaining traditional male-only succession rules.
Japan's upper house of parliament has voted to pass controversial revisions to a law governing who can inherit the throne in the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy, just days after the lower house of parliament voted it through.
The revision's stated aim is to secure the number of imperial family members, and maintain their public duties and activities, as the family's ranks dwindle and age.
But to critics, the revision has another "very clear objective: to prevent the future emergence of a female emperor," says Seiichiro Noboru, a former Japanese diplomat with ties to the imperial family.
Public support and the political stability of Japan's constitutional monarchy matter, as the country casts off post-war restraints on its military, and portrays itself as a reliable defender of a rules-based international order .
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