Japan panel wants princesses to stay royal-paper

TOKYO (Reuters) – Days after Japan’s Princess Sayako
married a commoner and gave up her privileges as a member of
the imperial family, an advisory panel said it would recommend
princesses stay royal in future, a newspaper reported on
Sunday.

When Sayako married Tokyo bureaucrat Yoshiki Kuroda in a
low-key hotel ceremony on Tuesday, she gave up her imperial
status and allowance to become a commoner, as dictated by the
1947 Imperial Household Law.

But an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
on solving a looming imperial succession crisis said it would
recommend sisters, daughters and granddaughters of an emperor
retain their status even after marriage, the Yomiuri Shimbun
said.

More distant relatives of the emperor, such as nieces,
would be allowed to leave the imperial household after the age
of 15, if they wished to do so, the paper said.

Only men are at /present allowed to succeed to Japan’s
Chrysanthemum throne, but no boys have been born into the
family since 1965.

Emperor Akihito has two sons, but both of them have only
female children. His only daughter, Sayako, is now a commoner,
so her offspring will not be in line for the throne.

The panel, which is to file a final report later this
month, has already said it will recommend allowing women the
same rights as men to take the throne and pass it on to their
children.

Koizumi has said he hopes to enact a change in the law next
year, which could lead to Akihito’s three-year-old
granddaughter, Princess Aiko, one day becoming Japan’s first
reigning empress since the 18th century.

Public opinion polls have shown most Japanese support this
idea, but opposition has been voiced by conservatives,
including Akiihito’s cousin, Prince Tomohito, who want to
preserve the male-only line of succession.

The paper did not mention whether Sayako could be invited
to rejoin the imperial household after a change in the law.