July 17, 2026
TOKYO – The bill to amend the Imperial House Law is highly likely to pass the Diet on July 17, following deliberations in a House of Councillors special committee.
Deliberations on the bill, which includes measures to ensure a sufficient number of Imperial family members, began on Wednesday.
During a question-and-answer session, which lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes, questions focused on the adoption system.
Hiroyuki Nagahama, an upper house member from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, strongly criticized the proposed system, saying it is a reckless act that could destroy the foundation of the system that recognizes the Emperor as the symbol of the State.
The amendment bill would allow the Imperial family to adopt male-line male descendants of the 11 former Imperial branches, which left the Imperial family in 1947. It would also allow female Imperial family members to retain their status after marriage.
“It does not violate the provision of Article 14 of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination based on family origin,” said Nobuyuki Iwao, director general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau.
Iwao said those who are eligible for adoption are descendants of former members of the Imperial family who retained their status as members of the Imperial family after the current Constitution and the Imperial House Law came into effect.
If the amendment bill is passed, male children born to adoptees would be eligible to succeed to the throne. It also stipulates that the order of succession will be “based on the lineage of their biological families.”
The “consensus of the legislature” — compiled by the speaker and vice speaker of the House of Representatives and the president and vice president of the upper house — contains no such description.
In response to a question from Nagahama, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said: “We have introduced an interpretive provision. The order of succession will be determined by the person’s biological connection [to the former Imperial branch] rather than by the familial relationship [with the adoptive parents] resulting from the adoption.”
“There must be no confusion regarding the order when there are multiple [eligible] individuals,” Kihara added.
Regarding the eligibility of adopted individuals’ descendants to succeed to the throne, Shunichi Mizuoka, leader of the CDPJ, criticized the move during a party leaders’ debate on Wednesday.
“The discussion, which began as a measure to ensure a sufficient number of Imperial family members, has been transformed into talks about a system that creates new eligible successors to the throne,” Mizuoka said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi responded by saying, “If we were to phrase how children of adopted individuals would be treated as ‘to be considered in the future,’ the system would not be complete.”
Meanwhile, under the amendment bill, the husbands and children of female members of the Imperial family would remain ordinary people.
In the special committee, Kihara said, “The family of Princess Anne [Queen Elizabeth’s eldest daughter] of the United Kingdom is not part of the royal family, yet this has not caused any problems.”
Kihara also indicated that travel expenses for husbands and others accompanying female members of the Imperial family on official duties could be covered by public funds.