In the past, Japan was generally dominated by male Mikado. What do you think of female Mikado? Kyodo News Agency learned from the internal documents and testimonies of the Japanese government recently that the Japanese government held a secret seminar from 1997 to 2004 to discuss whether the scope of those who have the qualification to inherit the throne can be extended to female royal families.
In the spring of 2004, the document included an early revision of the Royal model to allow the emergence of women and female Mikado. Japan's then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi set up an expert meeting in 2005, after summing up the conclusions, Koizumi had intended to start revising the model, but the second son of the emperor akishinomiya was born in 2006, the eldest son Youren made him abandon the revision.
Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported on March 29 that the seminar was held because of a sense of crisis that the emperor's grandchildren lacked a royal family with inheritance qualifications at that time. The discussions at the seminar promoted the establishment of an expert meeting by the Koizumi government. Now it is about a month before the replacement of the emperor. The royal family has no other heirs of his generation, and the problem remains.
"At that time, the problem consciousness was how to maintain a stable succession to the throne," the then deputy chief secretary of the government, Shoji Kurokawa, who was a member of the seminar, said in an interview. 'other members include the former chief of the palace, Kamakura, and the former chief of the Legislative Affairs Department of the cabinet, Kenzo Ohmori. The seminar defined the issue of succession to the throne as an "important topic" and convened experts in the fields of politics and history for repeated discussions.
Former Supreme Court judge Yukio Yuanbu, who joined the seminar in April 1999, was responsible for summarizing the topics and directions of revising the model. The restoration of Royal membership of the old royal family was also discussed. Since May 2003, officials from the cabinet, the Legislative Affairs Bureau and the palace office have further collated their arguments on the revision of the model.
In view of the birth of Aizi, the eldest daughter of the crown prince, the document in May 2004, which clearly proposed to revise the model, wrote, "considering that it will become a period of education for those who have the qualification to inherit the throne, we should start the discussion as soon as possible.".
The expert meeting set up by Koizumi began to discuss in January 2005. In November of the same year, the summary report held that it was necessary to revise the model and stipulate that the inheritance qualification should be extended to the female royal family, and the priority should be given to the long heir regardless of gender. This opinion allows the appearance of male or female Mikado whose mother inherits the blood of the emperor. This conclusion was also recorded as a 'programme' in the document of May 2004.
Shinzo Abe's government, which has appeared twice, did not formally discuss how to deal with the lack of successors. As for the measures to reduce the number of members of the royal family, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kan Yiwei indicated in March this year that the discussion would start soon after the replacement of the emperor, but did not mention the specific direction.