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This headline reads like a threat
This is confusing. The article doesn't mention why he may be the last, just that there is a debate over changing the succession rules to allow women to be Emperor. The succession line currently ends with Prince Hisahito but he is only 19, so why can't he have children of his own?
Right? Without any specifics, it seems like a pointless thing to write since if the guy does end up having a boy, they could say the same about him, and about anybody else that came before.
I think it’s a statement of how short the line of succession actually is. In a robust royal family there is a whole chain of people who are in line for the throne should something happen. But it seems like the succession rules preclude everyone else living right now. And that’s precarious. Yes he could someday have children, hence the “may” in “may be the last.” The kicker is he could also not and then there would be no contingency.
He may be the last if he is unable to produce a son.
If they won't allow women to be emperor, I wonder if sex-selective IVF will be the answer.
It was about six hundred years before we had a queen in England too. I'm sure they'll just go "fuck it, guess we're doing empresses now"
It's not like they actually run anything. It could honestly be a fucking cat and be more popular.
Boudicca, queen of the Icenii, would like to remind you that it was more progressive before the Romans invaded
Ok but instead of Emperor Cat I personally vote Neko Shogun as title.
He's just the country's mascot character. :D
Options include accepting female emperors, picking a new royal family, or becoming a republic. You're probably right that they'll go with the female emperor when the time comes.
There have been empresses in the (distant) past, it's just that now they claim it's no good. They'll go back to it they really have no one else. Picking a different family is NOT happening, the Japanese line is the oldest continuous dynasty in the world (mythologically allegedly 2680 years, historically reliably something like 1400~1500 years and possibly 1800). It's a living treasure of humanity. They'll give up the system before they pick a new line, and they'll pick a woman before they give up the system.
Miku for Empress!
You could say that about any dynasty that uses male-only inheritance of the title.
The whiplash of learning japan has a royal family in modern ages is wild.
It's just like the UK though, they're just figureheads
Still, nonetheless, quite a wild thing to learn.
There are quite a few European countries that still have monarchs. Just seems our last one before this one was "iconic" or whatever people call her. Glad the popularity of it is fading with the new one
There are also quite a few non-European countries that have a European king as head of state.
Loads of countries have royal families. I said many times that it's not a stupid model and latest events in Poland only confirm this.
Long story short: Polish president has mostly decorative role but current far-right guy is now illegally usurping powers that are constitutionally not his and conspiring with Trump behind the government's back.
In monarchies the King/Queen have pretty much the same role but their position is so weak that they simply smile and follow the orders. They have a lot to lose and nothing to gain.
How does that work? I heard of things like that in some countries. Venezuela is the only one that comes to mind. Idk if this is currently happening, but at least in the past there was an official and a non-official government because Maduro never accepted that he lost his ellections... but Poland seems to have a working democracy... or am I missing something? Is Poland that polarized?
It is extremely polarized but it's not about elections. Couple examples of what the president is doing now:
- the constitution is clear that the government (so the Prime Minister and his staff) is responsible for foreign policy. When the president goes abroad he should get his instructions from the government and be accompanied by someone from the government. President ignored this before meeting Trump. He's basically trying to run parallel foreign policy which is crazy dangerous and damaging
- new judges have to be swear in before the president. it's just a ceremony but the president decided he will not swear in judges he doesn't like
- same with ambassadors. according to the constitution those are nominated by the gov but the president decided he will only swear in those he approves
He's basically using weak points of the constitution (which admittedly is simply badly written) to derail the government and is trying to rule in parallel where possible even though his post was designed as a purely ceremonial one.
Their government was an imperial model during WWII. Unless they killed off the royalty, why would you assume they had no descendants?
It's not that, its just not something I have heard of, like, at all. Unlike most of the rest of the worlds royalty. Though them being less in the world news makes plenty of sense.
Well, things went about as well for Japan's royalty as it did for Japan in general when they lost WWII.
Even more wild they call their king, emperor.
They call him tennou actually (heavenly king) but then when they were forced to open up, they heard of Napoleon and they thought damn that's cool, we'll tell foreigners to use that too.
Tennou has been in use for over 1350 years, and in the late 19th c. they thought their governmental subdivision (provinces) more closely matched that of France under Napoleon III I think (departments).
Who cares about this?
Did you know that China forcibly disappeared a 6 year old back in 1995 and they're still holding him captive to this day?
I care an equal amount about this.
Sure, but you could post this about anything. What does this have to do with Japan?
Sorry, mister Robespierre. We've failed you again
He failed himself and "his" people with the Reign of Terror paving the way for their greatest dictator.
Reign of terror is such a dramatic name but for some reason there is no name for the millions of people killed by the casual brutality of the ruling class during the previous centuries of noble rule.
They killed over 16.000 people in 10 months in the XVIII century France. Most victims (over 80%) were commoners too.
Adding jailed dead numbers range from over 25k to 50k. Again, in 10 months, that's worth having a name. For the noble rule there are several times but the broader one is Absolute Monarchy / Absolutism.
Way to miss the point.
I mean, unless this 19 year old dude stated that he will not have kids, period, I don't see how "he may be the last".
The fundamental question is not whether to allow male or female succession line but how to save the monarchy
The answer is "don't". Monarchies' only use nowadays are as living relics of worse types of government and social structure.
Meh, they're basically living tourist attractions these days with no more political power than a movie star.
Royalty have long memories.
While you're right, I think they're more "biding their time" than content with this tbh.
The emperor of Japan was largely a symbolic position during the Tokugawa shogunate until the Meiji restoration restored him back to power, remember.
40 years to reach adulthood is a bit long, no?
That's crazy. How
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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