Just when it seemed gender equality in Japan was poised to make a significant
leap forward, legislation that would have permitted an empress to reign has
been shelved, while a new poll shows public support for the measure dropping.
The recent surprise announcement that 39-year-old Princess Kiko, the emperor's
daughter-in-law, is pregnant has forced Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to
abandon his reform plans, handing victory to ultraconservatives who bitterly
oppose the idea of a woman on the throne. Whether Japan changes its male-only
imperial succession law now appears to depend on the gender of
Princess Kiko's unborn child.
The episode reveals the formidable power of Japan's diehard male chauvinists
and exposes the deep-seated anti-female bias at the heart of the Japanese
establishment. Recent events are also a concrete example of why gender advances
in Japan are always so painfully slowly, halfhearted or fail to materialize at
all.
Unlike its European counterparts, Japan's brand of constitutional monarchy does
not allow a woman to sit upon the Chrysanthemum Throne, a glaring anomaly that
contradicts the government's stated goal of creating a gender-equal society.
Despite the emperor being a potent national symbol, the 1947 Imperial House Law
stipulates that only males can ascend the throne, and no woman has reigned in
more than 200 years.
However, since no male child has been born into the imperial family for 40
years, a debate has raged about whether Crown Prince Naruhito's daughter,
four-year-old Princess Aiko, should one day become empress.
Until recently, opinion polls show somewhere between 75% and 85% of the public
in favor of allowing Princess Aiko to succeed her father, with just 6% to 8%
opposed. In November, a prime-ministerial advisory panel produced a report
recommending that female emperors and their descendants be allowed to ascend
the throne, and the emperor's eldest child, regardless of gender, should be
given "priority as the imperial heir". An Asahi Shimbun survey conducted
shortly after the report's release found that 78% of respondents supported the
idea of a female emperor.
Proponents argued that such reforms would demonstrate a powerful symbolic
commitment to building a gender-balanced society. Conservatives fiercely
denounced the findings, saying the revisions would destroy more than a thousand
years of tradition and risk contaminating the imperial house with foreign
blood. A small minority even suggested reintroducing the practice of concubines
to breed a male heir, an idea that must have been deeply offensive to Crown
Princess Masako, who is the target of traditionalist anger for not producing a
boy.
In January, a confident Koizumi told the new session of parliament he would
submit a bill to open the way for female monarchs and arrange for the required
referendum to revise the constitution. However, his opponents were already on
the warpath. The previous day, 700 representatives of the country's 80,000
Shinto shrines condemned Koizumi's proposals, arguing the ideas were based
solely on the "modern concept of gender equality", giving little consideration
to the thousand-year tradition of the imperial paternal bloodline.
A hardline group of male lawmakers gathered in Tokyo, where their leader,
former trade minister Takeo Hiranuma, expressed the fears of many
conservatives, "If Princess Aiko becomes the reigning empress and gets involved
with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child
may be the emperor."
A marginally more moderate group of 173 lawmakers, 135 from Koizumi's own
party, signed a document urging caution over the revisions. The intense barge
of chauvinist passion even encouraged two senior cabinet members, Foreign
Minister Taro Aso and Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, to criticize
Koizumi's plans.
In the mass circulation Yomiuri Shimbun influential former prime minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone argued for the preservation of "the principle of the
male-line tradition that has been adhered to for well over a thousand years".
He claimed, "Intellectuals in foreign countries pay respect and give weight to
this particular fact as one of the world's truly unique imperial systems."
In the February edition of the monthly publication Bungei Shunju, Prince
Tomohito, a cousin of the emperor, also expressed his deep concern that the
reforms would make the imperial house no different from an ordinary family. He
advocated reinstating imperial branch families to produce a male heir.
Despite the onslaught, Koizumi stood firm, repeating his determination to pass
the legislation. However, the unexpected February 7 announcement that Princess
Kiko, the wife of the emperor's second son Prince Fumihito, was six weeks
pregnant in effect derailed the plans. Even though the baby's gender is
unknown, jubilant conservatives said it demonstrated that reform was
unnecessary because members of the imperial family could still produce
offspring.
Under current legislation, if the baby is a boy, he would be third in line to
the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito and Prince Fumihito.
The day after the pregnancy announcement, a downbeat Koizumi indicated that the
revisions would be shelved, telling parliament, "We should take our time to
carefully discuss the matter."
Alarmingly, the liberal media, which had strongly supported the measures, also
beat a hasty retreat. In an editorial the day before the surprise announcement,
the Asahi Shimbun declared, "We support the report because of its reasonable
conclusions." However, two days later it observed, "To make imperial succession
stable into the future, why not keep advancing debate and wait for the safe
arrival of the child before submitting the bill to the diet?" The
English-language Japan Times lamented, "The readiness of many people to see the
new plan shelved or postponed suggests that the idea of equality has only
shallow roots here: a woman is still second-best, a last resort."
The traditionalists' victory has also had an effect on public opinion, with an
Asahi Shimbun poll released on Tuesday showing support for the empress
succession law down to 66%. The same polled had registered 86% in January 2005.
The new poll also showed that the traditionalist camp potentially holds the
upper hand in the debate as 60% supported delaying the legislation.
Still, the battle is not yet lost; if Princess Kiko's baby is a girl, which
many hope, then the whole debate will be back to Square 1. However, the
ultraconservatives have demonstrated that they are a formidable force, and even
with public support and a powerful prime minister, the fight for gender
equality in Japan will be an uphill struggle.
J Sean Curtin is a writer, broadcaster and academic specializing in
Japan.
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