Gov't to set up panel on stable imperial succession by year-end

But the panel, consisting of intellectuals from various fields, will not discuss changing the current order of succession following the ascension in May of the 59-year-old Emperor Naruhito who has no son, the source said.

Meaning that they are probably already looking for a suitable wife for Prince Hisato and figure to get him married as soon as it's appropriate, and hope that his wife will be able to give birth to a son or two.

His being born put this issue on the back burner, and all the conservatives breathed a sigh of relief that they dont have to deal with it in a serious manner, for hopefully another generation, if at all!

There are two definitions given for Emperor in the Oxford English Dictionary:

1 a sovereign ruler of great power and rank, especially one ruling an empire. 

2 (also emperor butterfly) an orange and brown North American butterfly with a swift dodging flight, breeding chiefly on hackberries.

Presumably definition 2 doesn't apply. My question is, if the Emperor of Japan is a sovereign ruler of great power and rank, how come he can't organise anything for himself.

Let's face it. He's not an emperor. He's like a Ferrari with no engine. So why call him what he was? Why not call him what he IS? "Emperor descendent," for example.

Let's face it. He's not an emperor. He's like a Ferrari with no engine. So why call him what he is?

There are various combinations of Kanji that can mean "emperor". The one used in Japan is 天皇 which also suggests that the man is some kind of god. As he is clearly not a god I think the Japanese should be changed to 人皇, or just 皇 or 王. However, there are plenty of right wing nutters who would object to such a change. This is why we can expect nothing from this government panel.

How many 'intellectuals from various fields' does it take to come to the logical conclusion that allowing female succession is the best solution?

I wonder what proportion of these 'intellectuals from various fields' will actually be female.

Just allow women in the Imperial line of succession again!

I say "again" because they've had at least 10 empresses in the past in the official line!

Which headline do we want to see?

Japan lifts centuries old tradition. Allows female succession. Women entitled to stay in royal family post marriage.

or

Japan changes law banning women succeeding the throne amid shrinking number of the royal family members.

The latter is a sign of desperation with no change in women’s rights.

What a warm family photo! LOL

So......nothing.

If one of them marry a man having y chromosome of emperor Jimmu. Gov surely allow them to stay and start new branch at this movement

wo only vaguely related points.

The constitutional prescription against female emperors was written by the American occupation forces, as indeed was the entire constitution. It has had only one postitve aspect, that of economy. In Britain, all the members of the royal family, male and female, are supported by the taxpayers, so there is a growing bill - royals, apparently, don't come cheap. In Japan, once a female member marries, she receives a family name, becomes a Japanese citizen and loses the state subsidy, keeping state expenditure on the imperial family relatively small. Obviously, this is no justification for preventing the accession of an empress; it is, however, a problem to be faced.

One contributor brought up the question of the emperor as god - a common interest among westerners who think of a god in the Abrahamic sense. When I suggested that the emperor might not be a god, my wife was rather upset, pointing out that if the emperor is not a god then neither are her parents and neither will she be, or me, for that matter. She also suggested that an old sneaker can be a god and she was not joking.

As for me, I honor all the gods, wherever I am.

@no business

I agree, surely they could have stood closer to their son, even put their arms around him? But I guess that’s not protocol up there.

Women not being allowed to be empresses actually should make perfect sense to anyone who has spent some time in Japan and is observant enough to see beyond shopping and sightseeing.

A little, jaded part of me suspects that one of the ideas kicked around by this panel will be to 'encourage' the imperial line to 'donate' their seed on a weekly basis. It'll then be kept frozen and ready for implantation in 'volunteers' who'll have the babies surrogately.

Expat:

The monarchy protects parliamentary democracy more than an elected reserve executive or figurehead president (e.g. Germany). South Korea and Turkey had a parliamentary republic (reserve executive non-political president with political leader prime minister) for a bit, but without a monarchy the presidency was able to become more executive and much more politically partisan (akin to France or US). The people simply wouldn't have an emperor or queen (commonwealth) who tried to gain more power. In the commonwealth, the role of monarchy (and through governor general) is to ensure a viable govt and not to personally rule. While Japan doesn't have that last bit, I'd rather have a Japanese style prime minister over a Korean style president any day. Premiership is more democratically changeable