Overview
- The Lower House approved the bill on Friday, July 10 to revise the 1947 Imperial Household Law by allowing descendants of former collateral branches to be reinstated into the imperial family through imperial adoption.
- Under the proposal, only male-line descendants would be eligible for the Chrysanthemum Throne while female members would be allowed to keep imperial status after marrying commoners without extending that status to their spouses or children.
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's conservative government backs the measure as a way to create more male heirs instead of allowing women to ascend the throne.
- Public polls show strong support for a female monarch, with a Kyodo News survey reporting about 83 percent in favor, and critics say the adoption route may fail if distant relatives refuse to be adopted and that the law should remove the male-line rule instead.
- The reform is urgent because the imperial family now has a thin pool of eligible male successors, a condition caused by the 1947 law that stripped collateral princely branches of status and sharply reduced the number of male heirs.