Japan is running out of royals. So why won’t it let women become emperor?

The Chrysanthemum Throne Faces a Gender Dilemma as Heirs Grow Scarce

Japan is running out of royals – While Japan may soon welcome its inaugural female prime minister, the administration’s strategy to prevent a royal succession emergency is simultaneously narrowing the possibility of a woman ascending to the imperial throne. The nation’s imperial household currently possesses merely three legitimate candidates for the Chrysanthemum throne, with two of those individuals already surpassing the age of sixty. This demographic reality has triggered concerns about the monarchy’s future viability. For countless generations, Japan’s royal lineage has adhered to strict male-only inheritance patterns, a practice that aligns with the country’s traditionally patriarchal social structure where men maintain predominant positions across business and political domains.

This longstanding convention now jeopardizes the existence of the world’s oldest continuous monarchy, particularly as recent decades have witnessed the imperial family producing more daughters than sons. To address the insufficient number of potential heirs, cabinet ministers have suggested restoring previously diminished branches of the royal family, which would substantially increase the roster of male candidates. These proposed modifications require legislative confirmation before implementation.

Historical Precedents and Modern Resistance

Nevertheless, these developments have prompted academics, opposition lawmakers, and ordinary citizens to question the rationale behind excluding women from succession. Professor Makoto Okawa, an imperial lineage specialist at Tokyo’s Chuo University, remarked that finding logical justification for denying women the opportunity to become emperor proves challenging. Japan historically recognized eight female rulers, primarily during periods when male heirs lacked sufficient maturity to govern, until the Imperial House Law established in 1889 during the Meiji period formally prohibited female emperors.

It is difficult to find any rational basis for refusing to allow a woman to become emperor.

According to Okawa, despite this legislation, Japan’s broader constitutional framework does not prevent women from claiming the throne, and excluding them cannot reasonably be characterized as an established Japanese custom. The concept of pre-emptively dismissing women as incapable of imperial rule should be recognized straightforwardly as misogyny, he asserted.

Multiple surveys indicate that the majority of Japanese citizens remain receptive to the idea of female emperors. Kana Sakakura, a local resident, observed that European nations like the United Kingdom possess extensive histories of female sovereigns. She suggested that when comparing Japan to other countries, it appears the nation maintains an environment where women assuming leadership positions tends to be avoided.

The Shrinking Imperial Household

Despite public openness, the movement for female succession has achieved minimal momentum. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Liberal Democratic Party rank among the most vocal opponents of such reform. During parliamentary deliberations earlier this year, Takaichi maintained that restricting eligibility to male descendants of the imperial lineage remained appropriate. The government’s anticipated amendments, scheduled for legislative passage this month, fail to include any circumstance permitting a princess to inherit the throne. Furthermore, the children of princesses who marry commoners—virtually inevitable given the family’s diminishing size—would also be ineligible for succession.

Although its functions remain predominantly ceremonial, the imperial family, traditionally regarded in Japanese mythology as descendants of the Sun Goddess, serves as a unifying emblem for Japan’s population of 123 million people. The institution’s importance to national identity proved so significant that American General Douglas MacArthur, who directed Japan’s post-World War II reconstruction, communicated in a telegram that the emperor represented “a symbol which unites all Japanese,” as documented by the US State Department’s Office of the Historian. MacArthur warned that destroying this symbol would cause the nation to disintegrate.

Before World War II, identifying a successor presented fewer complications. The imperial household then maintained greater size and included additional collateral branches called Oke, providing alternative candidates should the primary bloodline fail to produce an heir. Everything transformed following 1947. As Japan confronted economic devastation resulting from wartime destruction, the Imperial House Law underwent revision to reduce the imperial family’s size and decrease royal expenditures. This amendment effectively limited imperial family membership to immediate relatives of Emperor Hirohito, eliminating eleven collateral branches and establishing conditions for the present shortage.

The original household comprising sixty-seven members contracted to sixteen, a reduction intensified by the mandate requiring female members to depart the imperial family upon marrying commoners. The newest government proposal aims to permit the imperial family to adopt former collateral branch members who are at least fifteen years old, unmarried, and without children. Such adopted members’ offspring would qualify for the throne.

At present, Emperor Naruhito, aged sixty-six, has one daughter, the highly beloved Princess Aiko, who faces legal gender-based restrictions preventing her from inheriting the throne. At twenty-four years old, she has not yet produced any children. Even should she eventually have a son, that child would remain ineligible to assume the throne under current regulations.

The idea of excluding women in advance as persons incapable of becoming emperor should be understood plainly as misogyny.

As Japan navigates this critical juncture, the question remains whether the nation will preserve centuries of tradition or adapt its succession laws to ensure the monarchy’s continued existence for future generations.