At an extraordinary cabinet meeting on the evening of the 30th, the government decided on a bill to revise the Imperial House Law aimed at securing the number of members of the imperial family, and submitted it to the House of Representatives. The two pillars are (1) adopting male lineage males from former imperial families into the imperial family, and (2) allowing female members of the imperial family to remain in the imperial family even after marriage. It included the fact that if an adopted son were born, he would be eligible to inherit the imperial throne. This is the first substantive revision to the Imperial House Law since it was enacted in 1947. We aim to pass the bill during the current Diet session.
The proposed amendment amends nine articles of the current law, which prohibits adoption, out of five chapters and 37 articles, and creates a new chapter six on ``adopted male members of the imperial family.'' It was decided that males of the former 11-family lineage who were 15 years of age or older without a spouse and children would be eligible for adoption. The scope of adoptive parents is the Imperial Prince, Imperial Princess, Imperial Princess, King, Queen, and Queen, excluding the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. The adoption will be discussed with the Imperial Household Council, and the child will become a member of the imperial family at the same time as the adoption.
Under the current Article 1, only men in the male line can inherit the throne. Regarding the descendants of adopted children, the proposed amendment states that Article 2, which describes the order of succession to the Imperial Throne, shall be applied according to the lineage of the adopted child (the adopted child's family). It was clarified that he was eligible for inheritance. It clearly stated that Article 2 "does not apply" to adopted children and that they are not eligible.
On the other hand, Article 12, which stipulates that female members of the imperial family should renounce the imperial status upon marriage, has been deleted. According to the government's explanation, her husband and child will not become members of the imperial family.
At the same time, the Basic Resident Register Act was revised. This will apply to female members of the imperial family after marriage, and will be recorded in the Basic Resident Register while still being registered in the Imperial Genealogy. Based on Article 4 of the Constitution, which states that the Emperor does not have "authority regarding national affairs," female members of the imperial family do not have the right to vote.
As a transitional measure, a supplementary provision states that female members of the imperial family at the time of the revised law's enforcement ``may leave their status as members of the imperial family if they wish.''
The supplementary regulations also include a provision to be reviewed every 30 years if necessary, taking into consideration the number of members of the imperial family.
In order to secure the number of members of the imperial family, in 2021, a government panel of experts proposed preserving the status of female members of the imperial family and accepting the adoption of male descendants of former imperial families. The ruling and opposition parties continued to hold discussions, and in June of this year, a ``consensus opinion of the legislative bodies'' was compiled under the leadership of the president and vice president of both houses of the Diet.
Some opposition parties strongly objected to the amendment's inclusion of the inheritance qualifications of adopted children, which were not discussed at the panel of experts or in talks between the ruling and opposition parties. The assumption that the government and ruling party would hold deliberations in a ``tranquil environment'' is broken.
