Some LDP Execs Sound Ready to Accept Emperors from Maternal Line

Tokyo, Nov. 26 (Jiji Press)--Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai suggested Tuesday that he would not necessarily oppose children of Imperial Family women ascending the throne.

A similar view was expressed by the Japanese ruling party's tax panel chief, Akira Amari, close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on television Sunday.

The remarks by the two party executives are expected to have repercussions within the LDP, whose conservative members stick to the current system allowing only male descendants in the Imperial Family's paternal line to succeed to the throne.

Whether to allow female Imperial Family offspring and their children to assume the throne will be the focal point of government talks, seen starting in earnest next spring at the earliest, on ways to secure stable Imperial successions.

Under the current system, female descendants lose their Imperial Family membership if they get married to commoners.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]