On July 17 (Tokyo time), according to Xinhua, the Japanese Parliament passed a bill amending the Royal Family Act to address the increasingly decreasing number of Royal Family members. This is the first substantive amendment since this law was enacted in 1947.
The bill was passed at the plenary session of the Japanese Senate after months of discussion about the future of the Imperial Family, in the context that the number of official members is only 16 and most are old.
According to the amended law, the Japanese Imperial Family will be allowed to re-receive unmarried men of the paternal lineage of 11 former Imperial branches that lost their Royal status after World War II.
In 1947, during the period when Japan was under US occupation, 51 members of 11 branches of the Imperial Family gave up their Royal status and became commoners according to the new Royal Law at that time.
Japanese officials believe that paving the way for the descendants of the old Imperial branches to return will contribute to ensuring the maintenance of the Royal family's operations in the future.
Another notable point of the amended law is that female members of the Royal Family will no longer have to lose their Royal status after marrying commoners. Previously, according to current regulations, princesses would become commoners if they married outside the Royal Family, causing the scale of the Royal Family to continuously shrink.
However, the new law also clearly stipulates that the husbands and children of female members of the Royal Family will not be allowed to join the Royal Family, but will still maintain their status as civilians.
Despite many changes, the bill still does not regulate the principle of succession to the throne. The Japanese government continues to maintain the regulation that only men of the royal family lineage have the right to succeed the Emperor.
This is also the most controversial content in recent years. Some opinions suggest that Japan should allow women or descendants of the female line to succeed to ensure the long-term future of the Imperial Family. However, this issue was not included in the revised Royal Law that was just passed.
The amendment is seen as an important step to maintain the stability of the Japanese Imperial Family, in the context that the Japanese Imperial Family is facing the problem of member shortage after decades.
