Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida submits by hand the report on imperial succession prepared by an expert government panel to Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, center, and Upper House President Akiko Santo, left, in the Diet building in central Tokyo on Jan. 12. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has handed off the hot potato issue of imperial succession to the Diet, which is expected to divide lawmakers as there is no concrete proposal for the future at present. 

Kishida submitted on Jan. 12 the final report on throne succession prepared by an expert government panel, chaired by Atsushi Seike, a former president of Tokyo’s Keio University, to the Lower House speaker and the Upper House president.

Debate in the Diet is not expected to proceed smoothly as the ruling and opposition parties have differing views on the issue.

When being handed the report, Upper House President Akiko Santo said, “(Imperial succession) is a very important issue that concerns the basis of how our country is.”

Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda said he would convene representatives from political parties next week and ask them to study the report.

The government set up the panel in 2017, responding to a call from the Diet. The Diet enacted a special law that year allowing the abdication of former Emperor Akihito.

An additional resolution added to the law called on the government to discuss and report on issues such as challenges concerning maintaining stable imperial succession as well as the establishment of branches of the imperial family headed by female members of the family.

The panel submitted its report to Kishida in December last year, which made two proposals: one is to allow female members to retain their royal status even after marriage; the other would allow males of the paternal line of the imperial family who are members of former branches of the family to regain imperial status through adoption by the imperial family.

The report effectively shelves the issue of how to maintain imperial succession after Prince Hisahito, the 15-year-old nephew of Emperor Naruhito, by saying discussion on it is “still premature.”

The report also didn’t discuss whether to permit a daughter of the emperor or a child of the female line of the imperial family to ascend to the throne.

Therefore, the report didn’t explore the crucial issue of how Japan can maintain stable imperial succession in the future. A former Cabinet minister describes the report as “a halfway job, even reversing the discussion on imperial succession.”

In the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the persistent view is that only a male from the paternal line of the family should inherit the throne. Toshimitsu Motegi, the LDP’s secretary-general, praised the report by saying, “It is a very well-balanced report.”

He suggested that the issue of imperial succession needs a careful discussion, by saying, “Things should be moved forward in a quiet setting.”

On the contrary, Chinami Nishimura, secretary-general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized the report at the end of last year.

Nishimura said the report put off the discussion of the topic that needs urgent debate, making clear her view that the report can’t be a basis for future discussion on the issue.

However, political parties privately don’t want detailed discussions on imperial succession to occur soon, to avoid having it become a key issue during this summer’s Upper House election campaign.

Therefore, it is unclear when practical debate on the issue would start. 

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