TOKYO -- Ten months after Japan's octogenarian emperor indicated he wanted to give up the throne while he was still alive, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved special legislation Friday that would allow him to abdicate.
The bill, which will be considered soon by the full parliament, makes a one-time provision for Emperor Akihito, 83, to retire from the throne and be succeeded by his elder son, Crown Prince Naruhito.
Akihito, a popular figure in Japan who keeps up a grueling travel schedule, had asked to abdicate so that he could give Naruhito, 57, time to rule. Akihito has reigned for 28 years, ever since his father, the wartime emperor Hirohito, died in 1989.
Once the bill -- which is expected to pass in parliament, where Abe's party has the majority -- is enacted, the government would have three years to set a date for the emperor's abdication. Akihito would be the first living Japanese emperor to leave the throne in 200 years.
In remarks to reporters, Abe's chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, declined to comment on the timing of the abdication, although Kyodo News reported that December 2018 was a target.
Any decision regarding the emperor is freighted in Japan, where until World War II, he was seen as a god. The postwar constitution, written by U.S. occupiers, stripped the emperor of his status as a deity and set him up instead as a symbol of Japanese unity.
Akihito has also come to represent the pacifism enshrined in the constitution and has acted as the country's emissary of historic reconciliation with surrounding Asian countries that suffered under Japan's aggression during the war. He has also visited regions in Japan that have been ravaged by disaster, most famously going on television to console the nation after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
While the Japanese public supports allowing the emperor to retire, conservative supporters of Abe have made clear that they do not want the government to set a precedent by permanently altering the Imperial Household Law, which governs succession.
Conservatives are loath to open the law to overhaul because they fear that doing so would lead to a change to admit women as rightful heirs to the throne.
The bill approved by the Cabinet on Friday makes no mention of female heirs to the throne. Naruhito's only child is a daughter, Princess Aiko, 15, so his successor would be his brother, Prince Akishino, followed by Akishino's son, Hisahito, 10.
Yet in repeated polls, a majority of Japanese have said they support a woman ascending to the throne. Without such a change, the royal family faces a looming succession crisis, as there are only five male heirs left in the family, and when women marry, they are forced to leave the imperial household.
The upcoming engagement of Princess Mako, 25, the emperor's eldest granddaughter, highlights the limitations of the Imperial Household Law. Because she plans to marry a commoner, she will have to leave the royal family, and even if she were to bear a son, he would not be in line to the throne. The imperial law not only bars women from reigning, but also insists that succession pass only through men of the royal family.
The opposition Democratic Party said that during the parliamentary debate on the bill, it would call for a supplementary clause allowing women to remain in the royal family even after marriage.
The legislation approved Friday would give the emperor and his wife, Empress Michiko, new titles upon abdication. They would be known as joko and jokogo. The bill would also switch the annual holiday commemorating the emperor's birthday from Akihito's birthday in December to his son's in February.
A Section on 05/20/2017