Japan Lower House Passes Imperial Family Bill

Tokyo, July 10 (Jiji Press)--The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan's parliament, passed a bill Friday to revise the Imperial House Law to secure an adequate number of Imperial Family members.

The bill was approved at a plenary meeting and then sent to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. It is likely to be enacted during the current Diet session, slated to end on July 17, after deliberations in the Upper House.

The opposition Centrist Reform Alliance decided in favor of the bill on the same day. In addition to the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party, the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito voted for it.

The bill is aimed at allowing the Imperial Family to adopt male, paternal-line descendants of former Imperial Family branches and retaining female members in the Imperial Family after marriage. It would allow male children of such adoptees to succeed to the throne.

Prior to the plenary meeting, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara explained the purpose of the bill at a meeting of the Lower House steering committee.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]