Why no woman should sit on the throne.

last updated 8 January 2015

Japan

Hideki Nagane

Japan’s ban on women inheriting the throne may seem sexist, said Hideki Nagane in Tokyo’s Asahi Shimbun. But it would be a mistake to repeal it, as lawmakers are now considering doing in a rush of political correctness. Under the system that has guided the Chrysanthemum Throne for 125 generations, since the time of Emperor Jinmu, when an emperor dies leaving only daughters, “the baton is passed to a male heir of a related family.” He may want to make his own child empress, but the law does not allow it. “At the core of the practice is the idea that the throne does not personally belong to the emperor.” It is an institution supported by the large, extended group of royal families. The possibility that the throne could come to a different branch encourages “ties and cooperation” among these families, “which gives rise to harmony.” Japan’s legislature only recently—just after World War II—got the power to change the laws governing the Imperial House. For centuries, such matters were the purview of the Imperial Household Council. The Diet should not use its power too hastily. “We must not think about matters just to suit our own generation, but must also respect our ancestors and think of posterity.”