Will Japan Enter the Era of a Queen... 90% of Citizens Support a Female Emperor

"No Gender Barrier to Playing the Emperor"
Few Young Male Royals... Reflecting Succession Concerns

In Japan, where the right to succession to the throne is reserved for males, a public opinion poll revealed that 9 out of 10 citizens support a female emperor.

Kyodo News reported on the 28th that "in a mail survey conducted ahead of the 5th anniversary of Emperor Naruhito's enthronement, 90% of respondents agreed that a female emperor should be recognized." The survey was conducted from March to April with 3,000 Japanese participants.

Previously, an NHK survey in 2019 showed that 74% of respondents supported a female emperor. In a 2021 survey conducted by Kyodo News, 82% expressed support for a female emperor.

The law that governs the system and composition of the Japanese Imperial Family, the "Koshitsu Tenpan (Imperial House Law)," stipulates in Article 1 that "the throne shall be succeeded by male descendants in the male line." "Male descendants in the male line" refers to males born to male members of the Imperial Family. It also specifies that female members of the Imperial Family lose their royal status if they marry someone outside the Imperial Family.

Princess Aiko, the only daughter of Emperor Naruhito
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Currently, Emperor Naruhito ascended the throne on May 1, 2019, after his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicated and became Emperor Emeritus. The first in line to the succession is Crown Prince Fumihito, Emperor Naruhito's younger brother, and second in line is Hisahito, Crown Prince Fumihito's son. Emperor Naruhito has only one child, Princess Aiko, and no sons, while Crown Prince Fumihito has three children, with only the youngest being a son.

The Tokyo Shimbun analyzed that "the survey revealed a growing sense of crisis regarding the succession to the throne, as Hisahito is the only young male member of the Imperial Family." Seventy-two percent of respondents said they felt a "sense of crisis" about the stability of the succession.

The most common reason for supporting a female emperor was that "gender does not matter in the role of the emperor," with 50% of respondents giving this answer. Regarding the so-called "female-line emperor," where a child born to a female member of the Imperial Family who marries outside the family succeeds to the throne, 84% of respondents also expressed support.

Meanwhile, 88% said it is "better to have" the imperial system. However, the percentage of respondents interested in the Imperial Family dropped by 8 percentage points from the 2020 survey to 67%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.