Japan Upper House Panel to Vote on Imperial Family Bill Wed.

Tokyo, July 13 (Jiji Press)--A Japanese House of Councillors special committee is set to vote on a bill Wednesday to revise the Imperial House Law, after the major ruling and opposition parties broadly agreed the schedule.

Yoshihiko Isozaki, the Liberal Democratic Party's parliamentary affairs leader at the upper chamber of the Diet, and his counterpart at the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshitaka Saito, on Monday decided to begin deliberations at the Upper House committee Wednesday and hold a vote within the day.

The bill is expected to clear the Diet, the country's parliament, before the current parliamentary session ends on Friday.

The House of Representatives, the lower chamber, approved the bill Friday with support from the LDP-led ruling bloc and some opposition parties, after committee deliberations earlier that day.

The revision will allow paternal-line male descendants of former Imperial branches to be adopted into the Imperial Family and female Imperial Family members to retain their status after marriage.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]