Government seeks Diet approval for imperial household law revision

2026-06-30

Government approves imperial household law revision to secure royal family numbers and submits bill to Diet

In light of the decline in the number of imperial family members, the government decided on a revised Imperial Household Law at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on the 30th. The proposal has two main pillars: allowing female imperial family members to remain in the imperial family after marriage and allowing male-line descendants of former imperial branches to be adopted into the family. The government submitted the revision bill to the Diet the same day and aims to secure passage in the current session.

Status of female imperial family members

The revision bill will delete Article 12 of the current law, which stipulates that female imperial family members leave the imperial family when they marry a man other than the emperor or a member of the imperial family. While enabling them to retain their status as imperial family members after marriage, the supplementary provisions include a transitional measure allowing current female imperial family members to leave the imperial family at their own discretion when they marry.

Married female imperial family members will be subject to the Basic Resident Register Act in the same way as ordinary citizens. The status of their husbands and children, which had been a focus of attention, was not specified. The current imperial family has 16 members, 11 of whom are women. As the family has aged, female imperial family members have become central to official duties.

Adoption plan and review

The plan to accept adoptees will be treated as an exception to Article 9, which prohibits adoption of imperial family members. A new section in Chapter 6 of the Imperial Household Law will establish 'adopted male imperial family members' and target descendants of the 11 former imperial branches that left the imperial family in 1947. The requirement is that they be male-line males aged 15 or older with no spouse or children, and adoption must be approved by the Imperial Household Council.

The adoptee himself will not have eligibility to succeed to the throne, and Article 2, which defines the order of succession, will not apply. At the same time, the proposal includes language granting eligibility if the adoptee's descendants are male, and states clearly that the application of Article 2 will depend on the bloodline, meaning the family line of the adoptee's original family.

The bill also includes supplementary provisions calling for a review every 30 years if necessary, taking into account the state of securing royal family numbers and other factors. The revision bill is based on the 'consensus of the legislature' compiled at a plenary meeting of the heads and deputy heads of both houses of the Diet and 13 ruling and opposition parties, and discussions had been proceeding on the basis of a report released by a government expert panel in 2021.

Ruling-opposition coordination

Before the Cabinet decision, Japan Innovation Party co-leader Fumitake Fujita met with Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Taro Aso and Policy Research Council Chairman Takaaki Kobayashi at the Diet on the 30th to discuss the revision bill. Nippon Ishin decided to approve the proposal, and the LDP and Nippon Ishin held a meeting of ruling party policy leaders later that day and approved the bill.

Nippon Ishin had opposed the age limit for adoptees in the plan to restore male-line descendants of former imperial branches to the imperial family through adoption. After the meeting, Fujita told reporters: 'It is a very painful and difficult decision, but we will agree so that the ruling parties can unite and amend the Imperial Household Law.' The government had initially planned to obtain approval at the ruling party policy leaders' meeting on the 29th and then decide at the Cabinet meeting on the morning of the 30th, but the party procedures on the Nippon Ishin side were not in place, so the item was not brought up on the 29th.

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