Japan Revises Imperial House Law for 1st Time in 79 Years

Tokyo, July 17 (Jiji Press)--The Diet, Japan's parliament, enacted a bill Friday to revise the Imperial House Law as part of efforts to secure a sufficient number of Imperial Family members, marking the first substantive change to the law since its establishment in 1947.

The bill was approved at a plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, by a majority vote with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as the Democratic Party for the People, Komeito, Sanseito and Team Mirai. The House of Representatives, the lower chamber, passed the bill July 10.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party in the Upper House, the Japanese Communist Party, Reiwa Shinsengumi and the Social Democratic Party opposed it.

"I have a deep feeling about the conclusion of long-standing discussions," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters later in the day. "We'll promote preparations to implement it."

The revised law will allow the Imperial Family to adopt male paternal-line descendants of the 11 former Imperial Family branches and enable female members of the Imperial Family to retain their Imperial status after marriage.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]