7 in 10 Japanese happy with an empress, so why are women still blocked from the Chrysanthemum Throne?
- A shortage of male heirs has left the world’s longest-lived monarchy facing extinction, but the government seems unwilling to consider allowing a woman on the throne
- That’s despite the public appearing amenable to such a change. Indeed, traditionalists’ opposition may be fuelling calls for the monarchy to be abolished entirely
Conducted by the Mainichi newspaper and the Social Survey Research Centre of Saitama University, the poll comes weeks after an advisory panel set up by the government to consider the future of the world’s longest-lived monarchy came up with two suggestions to solve the problem of a dire shortage of male heirs and, potentially, to head off the extinction of Japan’s imperial family.
Significantly, neither of the panel’s proposals was for legal changes that would permit a woman to become empress.
Yet even as Japanese people are amenable to an empress, there is little likelihood of that coming to pass as long as the nation’s political world remains deeply conservative and dominated by older generations of men, analysts say.
In fact, traditionalists’ opposition to an empress may actually be encouraging more radical suggestions in some parts of society that the monarchy should be abolished entirely, they add.
The need to reconsider the situation is more pressing than in the past, however, as there are now only two heirs to the throne after Emperor Naruhito. One is his younger brother, Prince Akishino, and his son, the 15-year-old Prince Hisahito. The emperor has a daughter, 20-year-old Princess Aiko.
