Panelists agreed that the succession law should be changed to give the first-born child the right to ascend regardless of gender, said committee head Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, a former Tokyo University president.

"If the priority is given to a male heir, it would make an unstable system that could involve a long wait for the birth of a boy amid uncertainty," Yoshikawa said. "It's not desirable." First-born succession rule would be fully implemented in the generation after Princess Aiko, the 3-year-old daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako.

The advisory panel has been meeting since January to study the succession issue and make recommendations as a shortage of male heirs threatens to trigger a crisis unless the Imperial House Law is changed.

Final recommendations were forwarded to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Nov. 24. Koizumi has said he planned to submit a bill to the Diet next year to revise the law.

If approved, Princess Aiko will be second in line to the throne, said Tetsuro Takigawa, the Cabinet Office official in charge of the panel.

The panel also agreed to propose that sisters, daughters and granddaughters of an emperor be allowed to maintain their royal status when they marry commoners, Furukawa said. That recommendation came less than a week after Princess Nori wed Tokyo bureaucrat Yoshiki Kuroda on Nov. 15, making her the first daughter of an emperor to marry outside an established set of former aristocratic families.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 26, 2005
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