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Prince Yuhito was the first adult male royal family member in 40 years, and many Japanese feared that he might be the last one, according to the Associated Press.
On September 6, the Japanese palace held a grand ceremony to formally recognize Prince Yuhito’s adulthood, a reminder that the prospect of the world’s oldest monarchy is bleak. This is largely attributed to its policy of male inheritance only and the declining number of heirs to the throne.
Prince Yuren is the second heir to the throne of the Chrysanthemum Dynasty and is likely to become the emperor in the future. However, after him, no one had inherited the throne, which put the Japanese royal family in a dilemma: whether the 19th century ruling to abolish the right to inherit women should be overturned.
A freshman who loves insects
Yuhito is a freshman at Tsukuba University near Tokyo. He majored in biology and liked to play badminton. He is particularly passionate about researching dragonflies and has collaborated on an academic paper on dragonflies surveys. He said at his first press conference in March that he hopes to focus on dragonflies and other insects, including ways to protect insect populations in urban areas.
Yuren was born on September 6, 2006 and is the only son of Prince Fumihito Akishinomiya and his wife Princess Kiko. He has two sisters, Princess Kako and Princess Mako, who were forced to give up their royal status because of marrying a non-royal member.
Yuhien’s coming-of-age ceremony was held one year after he reached the legal adult age at the age of 18 because he wanted to concentrate on taking the college entrance exam.
The last emperor of the Chrysanthemum Dynasty?
Yuren is the nephew of Emperor Naruhito. Emperor Naruhito has a daughter named Princess Aizi. Yuren’s father Akishinomiya Fumihito was the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, who was born in 1985. Yuhito is the youngest of the 16 members of the Japanese royal family. He and his father are the only two male heirs who are younger than Emperor Naruhito. Prince Chang Lu, the younger brother of Emperor Akiri, is the third heir to the throne, but he is 89 years old.
Historians say that the Japanese monarchy has lasted for 1,500 years. The shortage of male heirs is a serious problem facing Japanese monarchy. This problem reflects the rapid aging and shrinking population in Japan.
The emperor is traditionally a man in Japan, but women are allowed to inherit the emperor. There were eight female emperors in Japanese history, including the most recent emperor Gosakuracho who reigned from 1762 to 1770. However, none of them had heirs during their reign.
According to the pre-World War II Constitution, the right to inherit the throne was limited to male for the first time by law. The 1947 Royal Model promulgated after the war largely retained the conservative family values before the war and only allowed men to inherit the throne.
But experts say that the male-only inheritance system has structural flaws, and it was previously possible to work with the help of concubines, until about 100 years ago, concubines were able to have royal children.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako’s only daughter Princess Aiko was very popular, and despite the general public support for her becoming a future monarch, she was unable to become the heir to her father.
The dispute over inheritance rights is getting worse
In order to solve the problem of inheritance, the Japanese government drafted a proposal in 2005 to allow the inheritance of the female emperor. But Yuhito’s birth quickly changed the situation, and domestic nationalists in Japan turned to oppose the proposal.
In January 2022, another panel of experts, mainly composed of conservatives, recommended calling on the government to maintain royal inheritance while allowing female members to retain their royal status after marriage and continue to perform public duties. Conservatives also proposed adopting male offspring from now-defunct distant royal families to continue their male ancestry. But the debate is deadlocked over whether to grant royal status to non-royals who marry the princess and their children.
Former Utility Minister Mago Haneda said in an article in the Yomiuri Shimbun earlier this year that the deadlock forced Yuhito to bear the burden of the royal family’s fate alone. “The fundamental question is not whether men or women are allowed to inherit, but how to save the monarchy.”
The Yomiuri Shimbun, which is conservative, also released its own proposal in May this year, calling for the urgent revision of the Royal Model, to give the princess a royal status to her husband and children, and allow women to inherit the throne. The proposal calls on parliament to “responsibly conclude the crisis surrounding the symbol of state and national solidarity”.
Crown, carriage and prayer
Prince Yuhim’s coronation ceremony began on Saturday at his family residence, wearing a tuxedo and receiving the crown from Emperor Naruhito’s messenger.
At an important ceremony held at the palace, Yuhien wore a beige robe that symbolized her underage status, and other royal family members and senior government officials attended the ceremony. His turban was replaced by a crown, a black adult crown that symbolized his adulthood. Yuhito bowed deeply, thanking the emperor for giving the crown, thanking his parents for presiding the ceremony, and promising to fulfill the responsibilities of the royal family. Then, Yuren changed into adult clothes in black tops and took a royal carriage to pray to the three temples in the palace.
In the afternoon, Yuhito will put on his tuxedo again and go to the palace to welcome his uncle, Emperor Naruhito and his aunt, Empress Masako. At another ceremony, he would receive a medal called the “Chrysanthemum Band”. He will also welcome his grandparents, Akihito, and his wife, Empress Michiko, at the palace.
