TOKYO \u2013 Japan\u2019s parliament enacted Friday a historic revision to the 19th-century Imperial House Law by insisting only paternal-lineage men can become emperor, sparking fear that it could doom the already shrinking imperial family.<\/p>\n
The revisions include adoption of distant male relatives to father future heirs and allowing princesses to keep their royal status after marrying commoners. <\/p>\n
Royal watchers and experts fear the new measures could doom the 1,500-year-old hereditary institution by insisting that only men can be emperor, sparking worry about the shrinking, fast-aging imperial family.<\/p>\n
Emperor Naruhito<\/a> \u2019s 24-year-old daughter is hugely popular, and many Japanese want her to be his successor, but Princess Aiko<\/a> is ineligible because she is a woman. Japan\u2019s male-only succession rule means the line must move to the emperor’s younger brother, then to his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito<\/a>. Next in line after him is the emperor’s 90-year-old uncle.<\/p>\n In an imperial family that places a premium on male royal babies, Hisahito is the first such boy to be born in four decades. Only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family \u2014 there are no children \u2014 are men.<\/p>\n This matters, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a> and other conservatives insist the male bloodline is \u201cthe only source of the emperor\u2019s authority and legitimacy,\u201d which will be the basis for the upcoming measures.<\/p>\n While an emperor’s mother can be a commoner, as is the case with the current one, only boys born to men with royal blood can be heirs to the throne, according to the Imperial House Law.<\/p>\n The revision passed Friday to the antiquated law is meant to solidify the principle of that crucial bloodline by allowing the adoption of distant royal male relatives to father future heirs. <\/p>\n The new measures will also allow princesses to keep their royal status if they marry a commoner.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a declaration to prevent female monarchs … and to defend the male-lineage at all costs,\u201d said Hideya Kawanishi, a Nagoya University expert on monarchy. \u201cThey cannot say it\u2019s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n Takaichi supports male-only succession<\/p>\n There have been eight female monarchs. The last was Empress Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.<\/p>\n The paternal-line male succession was stipulated for the first time in the 1890 Imperial House Law, when Japan promoted patriarchal systems. That law was largely carried over to the current 1947 version.<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s revisions have led to protests from Japanese who see the government efforts as meant to eliminate Aiko from ruling and to justify discrimination against women and a patriarchal system.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very ironic that the first female prime minister herself is the leading proponent of the obsession with male-succession,\u201d Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist scholar, wrote recently referring to Takaichi.<\/p>\n Ueno said the new measures \u201ctreat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as \u2018childbearing machines\u2019 to produce male offspring.\u201d <\/p>\n After Aiko\u2019s birth, her mother Empress Masako<\/a>, a Harvard-educated former diplomat and a commoner, developed a stress-induced mental condition, apparently over criticism for not producing a male heir.<\/p>\n Imperial family is shrinking<\/p>\n Because of the male-only succession rules and the dismissal of princesses who marry commoners, the monarchy after Hisahito is \u201cextremely unstable,\u201d former Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa told Kyodo News recently. <\/p>\n Historians say the male-only system is unworkable today, as Japan more broadly faces a fast-aging, dwindling population.<\/p>\n It only worked in the past because concubines produced half the emperors until about 100 years ago, when the practice ended under Naruhito\u2019s great-grandfather, Emperor Taisho.<\/p>\n There was a government proposal in 2005 to allow female monarchs, but it was scrapped following Hisahito\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n Naruhito’s two male heirs are his 60-year-old brother, Crown Prince Akishino<\/a>, who is only six years younger than the emperor and has reportedly said he would be too old to serve, and Hisahito, Akishino\u2019s 19-year-old son. Third in line is Naruhito’s uncle, Prince Hitachi, who is 90.<\/p>\n The law is meant to bring in distant relatives<\/p>\n The more controversial of the two measures allows unmarried male descendants, aged 15 or older, of distant imperial relatives \u2014 but only of paternal lineage \u2014 to be adopted into the royal family.<\/p>\n Fifty-one members from 11 branch families renounced their royal status in 1947, mainly to ease the postwar financial burden on the monarchy, Imperial Household Agency official Yoshimi Ogata told a recent parliamentary session. <\/p>\n These people are at least 36 generations removed from Naruhito because they split from a common male-line ancestor 600 years ago, Ogata said.<\/p>\n There is criticism of what some see as the government’s extraordinary efforts to make sure that male royals are producing male emperors.<\/p>\n \u201cWho wants the son of an adoptee who nobody knows to be emperor instead of Aiko?\u201d asked Yoshinori Kobayashi, a cartoonist campaigning for Aiko\u2019s succession. <\/p>\n It may also be unrealistic to ask former royals to reenter a very strict family known as \u201can enclave without human rights.\u201d Royals cannot choose their jobs or homes, and must follow other serious constraints.<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder if anyone would raise a hand,\u201d 81-year-old Asahiro Kuni, whose family renounced its royal status when he was 3, told TBS television. \u201cI imagine many people, by age 15, have some idea about their future. It\u2019s cruel to tell them … to change the course of their life.\u201d <\/p>\n Kuni, who worked as an engineer at a major Japanese company, said he would tell his family to decline if asked by the palace. \u201cYou are asked to sacrifice your life for the happiness of the people. I can\u2019t tell my family to choose such a difficult life.\u201d<\/p>\n He also expressed support for female monarchs in interviews with other Japanese media. <\/p>\n Princesses who marry commoners can keep royal status<\/p>\n Aiko, known for her engaging smile, enthusiasm and witty conversation, is a public favorite. <\/p>\n Five single princesses, including Aiko and her popular cousin Kako, 31, may be affected by the other main revision to the Imperial House Law, which would allow them to keep their royal status and continue serving official duties if they marry commoners, although their spouse and children wouldn’t be accepted as royals. <\/p>\n Aiko\u2019s elder cousin Mako renounced her royal status<\/a> and moved to New York after marrying her college boyfriend, a commoner who now is a lawyer<\/a>. The move was largely seen as her attempt to flee from the restrained imperial life.<\/p>\n Ueno calls the system inhumane and urges the princesses to follow Mako’s example and leave when they can.<\/p>\n Hisahito, possible adoptees and their future wives will face enormous pressure to produce male offspring, Kawanishi said. <\/p>\n Many Japanese still want Aiko to be emperor<\/p>\n \u201cThe emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don\u2019t see why women cannot serve in the role,\u201d said 78-year-old Junichiro Tsujimaru, a sushi chain founder.<\/p>\n Yoshio Iwase, also 78, says Aiko, as the daughter of the emperor, is the legitimate successor. \u201cI think it\u2019s fine because there used to be female emperors in the past.\u201d <\/p>\n