The Japanese government on Tuesday adopted a bill to revise the Imperial House Law to secure an adequate number of imperial family members.
It would be the first substantial revision of the Imperial House Law, which was established in 1947. The government aims to enact the bill during the ongoing Diet session, currently scheduled to end on July 17.
The bill, approved at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, includes plans to allow the imperial family to adopt male, paternal-line descendants of former imperial family branches and to allow female members of the imperial family to maintain their status after marriage. It also includes a provision that the sons of imperial family adoptees will be eligible to succeed to the throne.
However, some opposition parties are fiercely criticizing the provision regarding the imperial succession eligibility of adoptees¡¯ sons, claiming that this issue was not discussed by a government panel of experts or in ruling-opposition talks that reached a consensus earlier this month.
The current situation appears to have deviated from the calm environment that the government and the ruling bloc expected for discussions on stable imperial succession.
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