Japan's Lower House Passes Bill For Imperial Law Revision In One-Day Debate

TOKYO, July 10 (NNN-Kyodo) -- The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill for a law revision to address the dwindling number of imperial family members after entering deliberations earlier in the day, a major step to change Japan's decades-long system.

Following the lower chamber's approval, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition ally, the Japan Innovation Party, aim to pass the legislation through the House of Councillors for its enactment during the current parliamentary session through July 17, Kyodo News reported.

In a vote hours after discussions started, the bill for the first substantial amendment of the 1947 Imperial House Law was backed by the ruling camp that holds more than two-thirds of the lower chamber's seats, a threshold required to override the upper house when pushing through bills.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government submitted the bill late last month, but a parliamentary stalemate stemming from opposition forces' backlash against what they say is the ruling bloc's high-handed approach to other key legislations had prevented debates from starting.

The bill's two pillars are to permit the imperial family to adopt males aged 15 or older who are descended from emperors through the male line in 11 former branch families, and also allow female members to retain their imperial status even after marrying commoners.

While banning adopted members themselves from becoming emperor, the legislation would allow their male descendants to be eligible to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. Still, it did not mention the idea of female or maternal-line emperors that has garnered public support, it added.

Under the current law, only males who have an emperor on their father's side can ascend the throne, while female members lose their imperial status upon marriage. Both the number of eligible successors and that of the imperial family members have been declining.

The bill was crafted based on a proposal compiled by the lower and upper house speakers and vice speakers after hearing from all 13 parliamentary parties and groups, focusing on how to ensure an adequate number of imperial family members and effectively shelving succession issues.

The bill, however, incorporated ideas that were not included in the proposal, such as allowing male children of adoptees from former branch families to be eligible to become emperor, and has come under criticism from some opposition parties.

Updating the Imperial House Law is among the agreements under the coalition deal signed on Oct 20 by the LDP led by Takaichi and the JIP, which helped her get elected in parliament as Japan's first female premier the following day.

Parliament had been gridlocked from late June as many opposition parties refused to discuss two key bills sponsored by the ruling camp, one to cut lower house seats and the other to set up a "second capital" to back up Tokyo, over its aggressive handling of Diet affairs.

The opposition forces also sought the intensive deliberation and debate sessions between their leaders and Takaichi, demanding she be held accountable over media reports since April, alleging her camp reportedly made online videos smearing her political opponents.

The situation normalised after the ruling camp agreed on Tuesday to make some concessions, including giving up plans to bulldoze the seat-cut bill for the lower house through parliament during the ongoing session.

Earlier on Friday, a joint meeting of committees of both houses officially decided that one-on-one debate sessions between Takaichi and opposition leaders will take place on Wednesday afternoon. The last such sessions were held in May.

--NNN-KYODO