TOKYO — It has been nearly 250 years since a woman last held the title to Japan ’s Chrysanthemum Throne, and almost that long since an emperor abdicated the position.
Now, as Japan moves to accommodate Emperor Akihito ’s desire to give up the throne before he dies, many Japanese believe it is also time to clear the way for a woman to reign again someday.
In August, Emperor Akihito, 83, signaled that he wanted to step down, telling the nation that he worried he would not be able to fulfill his duties much longer. The Imperial Household Law, which governs the succession of emperors in the world’s oldest monarchy, makes no provision for abdication. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ’s governing party indicated this month that it would consider one-time legislation to let the emperor give up the throne.
Polls show that a vast majority of the Japanese public believes the law should be permanently overhauled, not just superseded once. What’s more, the bulk of respondents said that the law, which has been in place since 1947, should also be changed to admit women as rightful heirs to the throne.
People close to the emperor, a beloved figure in Japan, say that even he agrees.
“If you look at his video message and read it deeply, he wants to reform the Imperial Household Law,” said Mototsugu Akashi, a friend of Emperor Akihito’s since childhood, who spoke to him by telephone last summer. “I don’t think he sticks to the narrow idea that only a male on the throne is acceptable.”
This month, when a government-appointed panel tacitly recommended special legislation that would allow only Emperor Akihito to abdicate, it made no mention of the possibility of admitting women as heirs to the throne. Mr. Abe, a conservative, has not explicitly spoken on the subject, either.
The issue remains contentious among conservative supporters of Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, who fear that opening the Imperial Household Law to more permanent change would force a debate on female succession. They consider the male line of succession to be sacrosanct, and derailed a plan by a previous prime minister , Junichiro Koizumi, to revise the Imperial Household Law to allow a woman to hold the throne.
“The Japanese imperial system’s value does not lie in the blood of the current incumbent of the emperor’s throne, but the value is put in the blood that exists in a long lineage,” said Hidetsugu Yagi, professor of constitutional law at Reitaku University. “Repeating this male lineage is the value of the Japanese imperial system.
