Still no empress in Japan. Why ?

Despite public opinion largely favoring the accession of an empress, the Japanese Parliament took a decisive step on Friday, July 17, 2026, when the Upper House passed—by a wide margin—a reform to the Imperial Succession Law that firmly maintains the exclusion of women from the throne.

In effect since 1947, this legislation restricts access to and transmission of the throne to the male line only, definitively barring the highly popular Princess Aiko (24)—the only child of Emperor Naruhito (66)—as well as Prince Hisahito’s two older sisters from the line of succession.

This highly conservative status quo is the result of intense political negotiations within the ruling party, led by Sanae Takaichi—Japan’s first female Prime Minister—who is fiercely opposed to female succession.

To address the demographic crisis threatening this dynasty—legendarily descended from the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu—the new legislation introduces an unprecedented measure: it authorizes the adoption of unmarried male distant relatives over the age of 15 into the Imperial family.

This workaround strategy aims to secure an heir for Prince Hisahito, the 19-year-old nephew of the current Emperor. Single and currently a biology student specializing in insects, the young prince now bears on his shoulders alone the future of the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy—a lineage destined to die out unless he fathers a son.