Japan to set up panel on imperial succession as family shrinks

If succession is the crucial problem that has become critical, why not just do away with the monarchy?

Pray tell, what exactly is "unstable" about the family again? Compared to the British "royals", there a paragon of "stability"! They have an Emperor "Emeritus" who faithfully served his three plus decades, a "Tenno Heika" that isn't going anywhere for a few decades at least, a brother with "Crown Prince" status who is a decade younger than his British counterpart, and a boy prince who, if he's like every other human, can have princes of his own...where's the "instability" again?

lol. I understand the public, and 99% of the posters here, think women "should be allowed" to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne, which is all well and good, but that's not necessary, now or for half a century into the future, is it? Ask the Japanese if they want to alter the rules to STRIP the two princes of their positions they're ready (and seemingly willing) to take up when duty calls. Poll them if it's best to instead force a shy, protected and unwilling Princess Aiko, who's already shown multiple signs of instability of her own, to suffer the burden of the elevation, as well as the ire of half her family, so we can celebrate "diversity uber alles", even at the expense of the supposed "beneficiary"?

I'd bet you'd get a rather different result. And if so, then relax! There's no "instability", Kyodo - the boys got this one covered for decades and decades to come...

It's none of our business. Let the Japanese decide.

the panel will setup a panel about setting up panels

Royal families are absolutely useless. Just look at Britain.

Back in the day I worked as a bartender in one of the top London hotels. During major events, there are private’s rooms where I worked. Not only did I serve royals, but I served drinks to important politicians, CEOs, Etc. the way I witnessed, through the royals, deals were made.

n November 2020, according to the Japan Times, it was recommended that the discussion be shelved until Prince Hisahito himself becomes an adult and begins producing offspring, at which point the women of the imperial family would likely be either married off or too old to produce an heir under absolute primogeniture!

I guess that things were made as such (or just procrastinated) behind the door, off public eyes and discourses.

The scenario for Prince Hisahito to the throne with his male offspring ensured seems to me too optimistic, leaving several uncertainty issues or what ifs unresolved: What if Hisahito declines to succeed? What if he fails to find the marriage partner timely? What if he or his partner is infertile? What if the couple chooses not to have a baby? What if their baby or more are all women?

Under the current arrangements, any "qualified" woman as Hisahito's partner may be hard to find. Forget romance. Whoever she is, her primary task is to bear a kid, ideally many who are supposed to be male. Alongside, she would have to fulfill public duty as Empress. What the hell assignments! It's more an open secret that the current Empress Masako was suffering mental illness due to pressures and her "failure" to meet this objective. No more victims.

In spite of the fact that the whole imperial legitimacy is based on the belief that the imperial line descends from a sun GODDESS. What a joke of a religion.

The millennia-old survival and continuity are just one aspect of the imperial traditions or raison d'etre which I think is also kind of a myth.

Not rocket science, give equal rights to the females in the family. The Emperor's daughter should be next, my vote goes to Princess Aiko

I feel very difficult to find a justifiable reason Japan has to keep the royal system. They are fossils of of the ancient age.

yawn Why does it bloody matter? Royal families are absolutely useless. Just look at Britain. What positive contributions do they make?

they aren’t special or particularly useful.

Bush stayed in their palace in Kyoto. He was the world leader.

if think if you eat ¥70000 lunches everyday, and have no real job, making committees and think tanks probably fills that uncomfortable silent times when everybody has nothing really important to talk about.

Re: @P. Smith 8:24a JST

*“How far do you take this logic? I’m genuinely curious how much you think we should excuse/allow simply because it’s “their culture.” - Re: @7:13a “This is Japan. Let them decide. This is their culture. They need time. *Another 70 years should do.

Just being preemptive before all the ‘flag waiving’ isolationistic, nationalists” show here to “acchi e ike!“ any other viewpoints.

This comment, of course, includes all the older, veteran ‘commenters’ routinely posting here, who continually chastise others ‘they‘ see as “carpet-bagging” newcomers. Often, and erroneously, they tend hold and represent themselves ‘superior’, and mistakenly presume to be ‘equally recognized as part of this country’ (hah! In their dreams!)

This is funny as the emperor could just force the issue and name his eldest child as his successor and watch as the government make laws to accommodate. As this is what happened with his predecessor.

@borscht

Nicely thought out but each option has it downsides.

• expand the line of succession to former royal families.

Tricky to convince people to respect someone once considered a commoner as royalty without achieving some type of major accomplishment.

• allow a female to be empress (it’s been done before and the first ‘empress’ was female).

-Best option in my opinion as it symbolizes the need and use of women in Japanese society. Unfortunately the old men making up the panel are unlikely to go for it as they 'must honor tradition'.

• abandon the whole concept of an imperial family.

-Automatic non starter as the economic and social stability of Japan is rooted in royal figures. Also as governments power is essentially given to them by the royal family, abandoning them throws the legitimacy of the government into question.

• allow the imperial family to die out for lack of male heirs.

-Not going to happen because your first option would be used because of the reason posted immediately above.

Most likely to happen is the wait and see approach.

Exchanging ideas through panels is entrenched in the Japanese culture.

Like long meetings at work.

They already decided to set up a panel in Dec 2020!

It is currently based on The Imperial House Law of 1889, amended in 1907, reducing members, and replaced with another in October 1947, including input from the US written Japan Constitution.

In January 2005, they set up a panel, and submitted a report on October 25, 2005, recommending that the imperial succession law be amended to permit absolute primogeniture.

From Sankei Shimbun in July 2020, the conservative wing of the Diet has proposed un-abolishing the Fushimi-no-miya and its branch lines, the Ōke. The Ōke are descended by a direct-male line from Emperor Sukō, who died in 1398. The Ōke families have not been considered aristocrats since 1947 and their descendants are engaged in various private business and media concerns.

In November 2020, according to the Japan Times, it was recommended that the discussion be shelved until Prince Hisahito himself becomes an adult and begins producing offspring, at which point the women of the imperial family would likely be either married off or too old to produce an heir under absolute primogeniture!

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - "the more things change, the more they stay the same!

I know this is going to be construed as stranger ‘Western’ thinking, but instead of forming a ‘panel’ of business people to ask ‘experts’ (on what, by the way? Imperial succession?) what to do, why not form a panel of ‘experts’ to say what to do?

I know, I know, eliminating a panel means less money for the business and LDP people, but maybe they should just bite the bullet and form, yet again, another ‘panel of experts’ to make recommendations.

Speaking of which? Why will it take a year? Let’s look at some possible solutions:

• expand the line of succession to former royal families,

• allow a female to be empress (it’s been done before and the first ‘empress’ was female),

• abandon the whole concept of an imperial family, or,

the one I think will happen because it requires no decision-making by anyone in authority:

• allow the imperial family to die out for lack of male heirs.

Another one? How many of these succession panels do they need? Either leave things as they are and let the Imperial line become extinct or, here’s a radical thought, let women have succession rights. It ain’t rocket science.

Yeah, another panel is what we need here. And "They are expected to reach a conclusion following up to one year of discussions." is also what we need. Horrendous waste of our money.

How about letting the family decide? And if that is too much of a trouble, how about getting rid of the title and make them just normal commoners? Our government is just solving problems that don't exist and while solving that, make it just more complicated.

This is just a simple thing to do, really. But we can't do anything that is simple, because it's simple.

The time has come for The QUEEN of Japan, it's been a long time coming.

How to cause an political uproar in Japan 101 (taking a page out of your book, @Aly Rustom):

Lol! I aim to please brother!

How to cause an political uproar in Japan 101 (taking a page out of your book, @Aly Rustom):

"**However, conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are reluctant to make significant changes to the imperial succession, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga saying in January, "Under current circumstances, male-only succession should be given priority.**"

It only takes one person, just stand up after he uttered this and ask the forbidden, golden question: "Why?"

However, conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are reluctant to make significant changes to the imperial succession, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga saying in January, "Under current circumstances, male-only succession should be given priority."

In spite of the fact that the whole imperial legitimacy is based on the belief that the imperial line descends from a sun GODDESS. What a joke of a religion.

A Kyodo News poll conducted in March and April last year showed 85 percent of respondents were in favor of allowing women to ascend the throne.

well if the olympics are anything to go by, we now know that over 80% of public opinion doesn't mean sheet

Another panel?

There is a simple solution to their problems,do like in the northern European countries and allow the females from their Imperial family to succede on the throne.

But propably the old LDP boys prefer to extend the imperial succession to some semi obscure branch rather than bow to a woman.

Welcome to the 21st century.

The easiest and most realistic way of ensuring a stable succession of emperors is to reinstate former imperial branch families who were forced to leave the imperial status after WW2.

Crikey, another ‘panel’!

Regarding the succession issue I’d say - Referendum!

Put it to the people!!!!!

”It’s their culture.  They shouldn’t rush this.  They need time.

“ under the 1947 Imperial House Law,...a one-off law was enacted in 2017”

Another 70 years should do.

How does being the CEO of a train company make you an expert on this topic? This is the second or third panel, it's just more tax payer money going to friends of the LDP with no results. There will be no change.

This is Japan. Let them decide. This is their culture:

“....will establish an advisory panel next week to solicit views from experts on ways..., amid concerns over the number...are expected to hold discussions without making prejudgments....

*‘They are expected to reach a conclusion following up to one year of discussions... adopted a nonbinding resolution calling on the government to promptly hold discussions on how to achieve...and report its conclusion, without setting a deadline.”*

I thought they’d already done this.

Why on earth do they have to set up expert panels every 5 minutes?!