TMCnet News
Koizumi vows efforts to enact imperial law revision+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 7_(Kyodo) _ Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he will make efforts to ensure a bill to allow females and their descendants to succeed to the imperial throne is enacted at the current ordinary Diet session. "I think it is anything but too early to enact the bill during the current session," Koizumi told a House of Representatives Budget Committee session. "I think we should allow females and their descendants to reign, for the sake of the imperial system, which is Japan's symbol, for a stable imperial succession," he said. Koizumi was responding to questions by Katsuya Okada, former head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, who said he thinks the bill to revise the Imperial House Law has been prepared in a hasty manner while public opinion remains split over the issue of allowing females to reign. The comments followed the announcement earlier in the day by the Imperial Household Agency that Princess Kiko, the wife of Emperor Akihito's second son, Prince Akishino, is pregnant. Koizumi said the bill is timed to enable four-year-old Princess Aiko to be raised and educated with the awareness that she will ascend the throne in the future. It was the first time Koizumi made reference to the reason his government is seeking to enact the contentious legislation during the ongoing Diet session through June. Princess Aiko is the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako. No male heir has been born into Japan's royal family since Prince Akishino's birth in 1965, stirring concerns of a possible succession crisis. Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko have two daughters. |