Japan is facing a succession crisis. What you need to know

In September, Prince Hisahito's coming of age ceremony was held in Japan — over the past 40 years, he has become the only man from the royal family who has reached the age of 18. And in Japan, they fear that it may be the last. This is largely due to the tradition of male-only succession to the throne and the reduction in the number of those eligible to become emperor. Against the background of a general drop in the birth rate, the country is facing a succession crisis. In this regard, Japan began to discuss the possibility of transferring the throne to women. Izvestia dealt with the details.

What is known about Prince Hisahito

• Prince Hisahito's coming of age ceremony was held in Japan in September. He is second in line to the throne after his father, Crown Prince Akishino, who was once the last man in the family to reach adulthood — this happened in 1985. There are no heirs after Hisahito.

• Hisahito turned 19 years old. The ceremony was supposed to be held on his 18th birthday, but he decided to postpone it in order to prepare for university admission.

• The Prince studies at the University of Tsukuba, one of Japan's leading research institutes, which is associated with the names of three Nobel laureates at once. Hisahito studies biology there, and he is especially passionate about dragonflies and the protection of their populations in urban environments. The prince became a co-author of a scientific publication based on the results of a study of insect life at the Akasaka Imperial Estate in Tokyo. In his spare time, Hisahito plays badminton.

The prince's academic career follows the post-war tradition of Japanese royals to stay away from politics. They studied biology, literature, and art. For example, the current Emperor Naruhito was interested in the topic of water transport, the honorary Emperor Akihito studied fish, and Crown Prince Akishino studied chickens.

Who claims the throne

The Imperial family of Japan plays a ceremonial role, being a symbol of the state and the unity of the people. According to the post-war constitution of 1947, they have neither executive nor military power.

• The imperial family has a total of 16 people who have reached the age of majority. Hisahito is the youngest of them. He is the nephew of the current Emperor Naruhito, who has an only child, Princess Aiko. Hisahito is also the only son of the Crown Prince, but he has two older sisters, Princess Kako, as well as the former Princess Mako, who had to give up her status as a member of the imperial family after she married a commoner.

• In addition to the prince and his father, Prince Hitachi, the younger brother of former Emperor Akihito, is also claiming the throne, but he is already 89 years old. There are no other contenders for the Chrysanthemum throne in the country.

Why did the question of empresses arise?

The small number of male heirs is a serious problem for the monarchy, where traditionally it was men who received the throne. However, there have also been empresses in the history of Japan — only eight. The reign of the last of them, Go-Sakuramachi, ended in the 1770s.

In 1889, the country passed the first law regulating succession to the throne. He fixed that the throne can be occupied only by men — representatives of the imperial family. In the past, the order worked thanks to concubines, whose children could claim the throne. However, in the new law on the Imperial house of 1947, only legitimate descendants were recognized as heirs to the throne.

In 2005, the Government proposed changing the rules and allowing women to become empresses. However, with the birth of Hisahito, the mood quickly changed — the initiative on female empresses was rejected by the nationalists. At the same time, Princess Aiko (daughter of Emperor Naruhito) is still widely popular among the people, and if the tradition of succession to the throne were adjusted, most of the population would support her candidacy as the future monarch.

• In 2022, a group of experts, consisting mainly of supporters of conservative views, recommended not changing the order of succession to the throne in the male line. They proposed to allow women from the royal family to retain their status in the case of marriage with persons of non-royal blood. However, the question arose whether commoners who married princesses could become part of the imperial family. No agreement has been reached on this issue.

• Last year, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recommended that Japan review the succession to the throne to ensure gender equality. And in May of this year, one of the leading Japanese newspapers, Yomiuri, called on the authorities to urgently resolve the crisis surrounding the "symbol of the unity of the people": amend the law "On the Imperial Court" and allow women to inherit the throne, as well as grant monarch status to the husbands and children of princesses.

Does society support changing traditions

• Recent opinion polls show that Japanese people mostly (81%) support the idea of allowing a woman to inherit the throne. Also, 65% are in favor of granting women members of the imperial family the right to maintain their status after marriage.

• Now Prince Hisahito enjoys the support of society, especially young people — people are attracted by his image of an ordinary student. Although there were rumors related to suspicions of plagiarism of the essay, which was awarded at a children's competition.

• Against the background of a decrease in the number of legitimate claimants to the throne in Japan, there are strong concerns about the impending succession crisis. The situation in the imperial family reflects a larger problem — the aging and declining population of the country. Last year, the birth rate was the lowest since 1899, when statistics began to be kept. Japan's population is projected to shrink by about 30% to 87 million by 2070, with four out of ten people aged 65 and over.