{"id":9653,"date":"2026-07-18T14:54:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9653"},"modified":"2026-07-18T14:54:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:54:39","slug":"japan-votes-to-keep-emperor-succession-male-only-blocking-princess-aiko-from-throne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9653","title":{"rendered":"Japan votes to keep emperor succession male-only, blocking Princess Aiko from throne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2Fnewspress-collage-eqnvs7362-1784366185318.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261784351864\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Japan\u2019s Parliament voted Friday to enshrine male-only succession for the imperial throne, part of a monarchy that traces its origins back roughly 1,500 years.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers did so by revising an Imperial House Law dating back to the 1800s, despite warnings from experts that limiting succession to men in the paternal line will hasten the decline of Japan\u2019s shrinking and aging imperial family, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>To address the dwindling number of eligible heirs, the revisions allow distant male relatives to be adopted into the imperial family to father future successors.<\/p>\n<p>However, strict rules remain in place limiting the throne to men with royal blood. The changes also allow princesses to retain their royal status after marrying commoners.<\/p>\n<p>The new rules passed by Parliament come as <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/06\/world-news\/japans-prince-hisahito-may-be-the-last-male-royal\/\">many Japanese had been calling for Princess Aiko, Emperor Naruhito\u2019s 24-year-old daughter, to be allowed to succeed him<\/a> \u2014 now an impossibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don\u2019t see why women cannot serve in the role,\u201d Junichiro Tsujimaru, a 78-year-old sushi chain founder, told the AP.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Japan\u2019s Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, April 10, 2024. <span class=\"credit\">Kazuhiro Nogi\/Pool AFP via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Under current law, the 66-year-old emperor\u2019s younger brother is next in line. After that, his 19-year-old nephew, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/09\/07\/world-news\/japan-prince-hisahito-becomes-the-first-royal-male-to-reach-adulthood-in-4-decades\/\">Prince Hisahito<\/a>, will inherit the throne, and then the emperor\u2019s 90-year-old uncle.<\/p>\n<p>Hisahito is the only boy to be born in four decades, and only five of the 16 adults in the\u00a0imperial family\u00a0are men.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/08\/world-news\/japanese-pm-sanae-takaichis-party-sweeps-to-massive-election-victory\/\">Prime Minister\u00a0Sanae Takaichi<\/a>\u00a0and other conservatives say the male bloodline is the source of the emperor\u2019s authority and legitimacy.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Japan\u2019s Prince Hisahito attends his coming-of-age rituals on his 19th birthday at the Imperial Palace, Sept. 6, 2025. <span class=\"credit\">undefined\/Japan Pool via Kyodo News via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a declaration to prevent female monarchs \u2026 and to defend the male-lineage at all costs,\u201d Hideya Kawanishi, a Nagoya University expert on monarchy, told the AP. \u201cThey cannot say it\u2019s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist and sociologist, recently suggested it was ironic that\u00a0Japan\u2019s first female prime minister\u00a0was the one to ensure male-only succession.<\/p>\n<p>Ueno said the new rules \u201ctreat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as \u2018childbearing machines\u2019 to produce male offspring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Japan has had eight empresses descended from the male line in its centuries-long history as a hereditary monarchy. The last woman to reign was Empress Go-Sakuramachi, who sat on the throne from 1762 until 1771, when she abdicated in favor of her nephew.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Japan\u2019s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the National Diet in Tokyo, July 15, 2026. <span class=\"credit\">AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Female eligibility for the throne was first eliminated in 1890 under the original Imperial House Law.<\/p>\n<p>That change was carried over into the modern Imperial House Law, enacted in 1947, the same year Japan\u2019s new constitution stripped the emperor of governing authority after the country\u2019s defeat in\u00a0World War II.<\/p>\n<p>Like Britain\u2019s\u00a0royal family, Japan\u2019s imperial family remains an important national symbol.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan\u2019s Parliament voted Friday to enshrine male-only succession for the imperial throne, part of a monarchy that traces its origins back roughly 1,500 years. Lawmakers did so by revising an Imperial House Law dating back to the 1800s, despite warnings from experts that limiting succession to men in the paternal line will hasten the decline&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/newspress-collage-eqnvs7362-1784366185318.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1784351864&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}