The future empress of Japan will not be able to attend the induction of her husband

TOKYO – As part of a historic succession on the imperial throne of Japan, the new emperor will receive Wednesday a sword, a jewel and official seals at a sacred ceremony thousands of years old .

Naruhito, 59, will ride Wednesday on the Chrysanthemum throne, a day after his father, Emperor Akihito, 85, became the first Japanese emperor to abdicate in over two hundred years.

The ceremony of ascension, in a hall of the imperial palace, will be historic in another way: for the first time of the modern era, a woman will attend the ceremony. Satsuki Katayama, the only woman in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office, will attend this first stage of Naruhito's induction.

But the new empress, Masako, who has been married to Naruhito for twenty-six years, will not be able to attend, a new sample of the underprivileged position of women in the imperial family.

The law of the imperial house governs the line of succession, as well as almost all protocol issues relating to the Japanese monarchy, and stipulates that women of the royal family can not be present in the hall when the new emperor receives the sacred robe . which symbolizes the legitimate succession of the oldest monarchy in the world.

But the bans go much further. Women are not allowed to occupy the throne. In fact, women born in the royal family must officially leave when they marry and none of their children are entitled to the succession to the throne.

These rules left the imperial family a very small number of heirs. After the occupation of the throne by Naruhito, the line of succession will include his uncle, Prince Hitachi, 83 years old; The younger brother of Naruhito, Prince Akishino, 53, and the son of Akishino, Prince Hisahito, 12 years old. The only descendant of Naruhito and Masako, 17-year-old Princess Aiko will not be a candidate for the occupation of the throne.

When the Japanese parliament pbaded a law in 2017 allowing Akihito to abdicate, he added an article encouraging the government to discuss possible reforms allowing women of the royal family to remain members of the imperial household after marriage and to grant them right to direct legitimate lines of inheritance.

Due to Conservative pressure, the addition did not mention allowing women to occupy the throne.

The Abe government, which pushed a platform for the empowerment of women in Japanese society and economy – without success – promised to openly discuss women in the imperial family soon after Naruhito came up. on the throne. the week

"I do not think it's his preference," said Kenneth J. Ruoff, historian and Imperial Japan specialist at Portland State University. "But they have no alternative, they are on the verge of extinction of the imperial succession."

Conservatives often insist on the importance of tradition in trying to justify purely masculine succession.

"If a woman or one of her children attained the throne, it would be a big change," said Hidetsugu Yagi, a professor of law and philosophy at Reitaku University in Kashiwa, Japan. "The imperial family would lose its legitimacy."

But historians say that imperial traditions have changed over time.

"The idea that inheritance is limited to men is a modern invention," said Kathryn Tanaka, badociate professor of historical and cultural studies at Otemae University in Nishinomiya, Japan.

The Japanese condition that the throne is to be inherited by a male lineage only dates from the Meiji era in the 19th century. The Japanese myths trace the lineage of the emperor until 2700 years ago, and in the record of 125 generations of monarchs, eight women were able to reign as empresses while they were in control. at that time there were no adult men eligible for the throne.

Public opinion is also in favor of women gaining access to the throne. In a survey conducted by Japan's second largest newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, more than three-quarters of respondents said they would support an empress.

The Japanese royal family is out of step with monarchies from other parts of the world. In the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II has been in the throne for more than six decades. In the Netherlands and Belgium, Sweden, Norway and Spain, the successors to the throne are all young women.

The new empress was once a symbol of the possibilities of change of the monarchy. Before getting married to Naruhito, Masako was a junior diplomat at the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Some hoped to contribute to the modernization of the role of women in the imperial family.

But when she became a princess, she gave up her career and was under intense pressure to give birth to a male heir. In recent years, it has been mainly out of public scrutiny.

Kumiko Nemoto, professor of sociology at the Faculty of Foreign Studies of Kyoto University, said that Masako, by giving up his professional life after his marriage, "made a sacrifice that many women of his generation have consented. "