TOKYO: Proposals designed to ensure an adequate number of Imperial family members have been adopted as the “will of the legislature,” but ambiguity remains on some key points.
The two proposals would allow female members of the Imperial family to retain their status after marriage, and allow male descendants in the male line of 11 former Imperial branches to be adopted into the Imperial family.
The government will start drawing up a bill to revise the Imperial House Law, but the status of the husband and children of these female members remains unclear, and there is strong opposition to Imperial family members adopting a child.
As such, it is uncertain whether these proposed measures would contribute to ensuring stability in the system where the Emperor is a symbol of the state.
The proposal to allow female members of the Imperial family to retain their status after marriage would require a revision to Article 12 of the Imperial House Law, which stipulates that a female member of the Imperial family will lose her status if she marries a person outside the family.
A senior official of the Imperial Household Agency welcomed the proposal, saying, “This will create an environment that supports Prince Hisahito.” The prince is the oldest son of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, a family that will shoulder the next generation of the Imperial family.
However, the proposal does not mention what status, if any, would be given to the husband and children of a female Imperial family member after she marries. Ruling party members and other observers who have steadfastly advocated for maintaining male-line succession have repeatedly asserted that these husbands and children should not be made members of the Imperial family.
There has been no example under the symbolic Emperor system of a family in which the wife is a member of the Imperial family, while the husband and children are regular citizens. By contrast, the wife and children of a male member of the Imperial family become members of the family.
This entire family appears on the balcony during events held at the Imperial Palace to mark the New Year and the Emperor’s birthday to wave and offer greetings to the public. This familiar sight could possibly change.
In some other nations, the husband of a female royal family member does not become royalty but is considered a member of the royal family and will attend public events with his wife.
However, some have been criticised for prioritising business activities over their official duties, and there have been cases in which expressing displeasure over their low status within the royal family has cast a shadow over the family’s activities.
At a press conference in 2002, the present Emperor said, “I believe that a family is the smallest unit of society.” He has attached great importance to whole-family activities.
The Emperor has traveled with the Empress and their daughter, Princess Aiko, to events that commemorate the war dead and to disaster-hit areas to console bereaved families and people affected by the catastrophe.
Seijo University Prof. Yohei Mori, an expert on media history, said, “The proposals were lacking discussions on the state of a family that will be closely connected with Imperial family activities.”
Discussions on establishing female-headed branches of the Imperial family, which would pave the way to female and matrilineal emperors, were also excluded. If a male member of the Imperial family was allowed to become independent through marriage or other means and earn their own living, by convention the Emperor would give him a title granted only to a male head of the family, such as “Prince Akishino” or “Prince Hitachi”.
Princess Akiko became head of the Mikasa family, and a princess whose husband died became head of a new branch of the Imperial family. But as things stand, Princess Aiko, and Princess Kako — the second daughter of the crown prince and princess — are closer to Imperial lineage and cannot become heads of a family branch if they marry and become independent.
“We don’t know how their position in the Imperial family will change around the time they get married,” an aide to one family member said anxiously. - The Japan News/ANN
