Japan passes law paving the way for Emperor Akihito to abdicate
Debate allowing women to ascend 2,000-year-old throne postponed
Japan’s parliament yesterday passed a law allowing Emperor Akihito to become the country’s first monarch to abdicate in 200 years, but put off a debate over how to tackle the shrinking royal population and whether to allow women to ascend the throne.
In veiled language, the 83-year-old emperor expressed his wish to abdicate last August, citing his old age and health.
Under the law, his abdication must take place within three years.
Current succession rules allow only men from the paternal bloodline to ascend the 2,000-year-old Chrysanthemum Throne. Women, but not men, are forced to renounce their royal status if they marry a commoner.
Prime minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative government supports male-only succession. Emperor Akihito’s son, 57-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito, is next in line.
Prince Naruhito’s only child is a girl, and his younger brother, Prince Akishino, has two adult daughters and a tenyear-old son, Hisahito. This means only one of the emperor’s four grandchildren is an eligible heir.
After Prince Naruhito’s daughter was born, a government panel discussed the possibility of allowing female ascension, but the talk quickly faded after Hisahito’s birth.
Emperor Akihito’s coming abdication has rekindled concerns about a shortage of heirs. The Abe government avoided taking up divisive issues involving the status of female royals, which would have required a time-consuming and broader overhaul of the 1947 Imperial House Law. To secure opposition support, the ruling party did agree to a non-binding attachment to the bill calling on the government to study ways to improve the status of princesses.
That could include allow- ing them to keep their titles so that they can make up for the declining royal membership and continue to perform some royal family public duties.
The abdication law applies only to Emperor Akihito and expires in three years to avoid putting future monarchs at risk of forcible abdication due to political manipulation. The law was needed because the 1947 Imperial House Law does not provide for abdication.
Japanese media reports have said officials are considering having Emperor Akihito abdi- cate at the end of 2018, when he would turn 85. No date has been announced yet.
The last emperor to abdicate was Kokaku in 1817. Although abdications were historically not uncommon, the previous imperial house law set in 1889 required monarchs to reign until they died to avoid conflicts between reigning and retired emperors.
Emperor Akihito, who has had heart surgery and was treated for prostate cancer, has been on the throne in Japan since the death of his father, Hirohito, in 1989. In a rare address to the nation last year, he said he was beginning to feel “constraints” on his health which were making it hard for him to fulfil his official duties. The emperor is constitutionally barred from making any political statements, so he could not say explicitly that he wanted to stand down.
He has no political powers but several official duties, such as greeting foreign dignitaries. Japan’s monarchy is entwined in the Shinto religion and the emperor still performs religious ceremonies.
Emperor Akihito was born on 23 December, 1933, the first son of Hirohito and Empress Nagako, who had already produced four girls.
The prince was separated from his parents aged three and raised by nurses and chamberlains.
However, in a departure from custom, at six Akihito was sent to school with commoners in order to broaden him.
When the Allies began closing in on Japan during the Second World War, he was evacuated to a provincial city.