A Critical Analysis of the Debate on the Succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan:Interdisciplinary Approaches from the Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences

Tsuji, Hirohito (2025) A Critical Analysis of the Debate on the Succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan:Interdisciplinary Approaches from the Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. In: UEA PGR Conference 2025, 2025-06-06 - 2025-06-06, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Imperial Family of Japan is characterised by the fact that, from the first Emperor Jinmu to current Emperor, the throne has been passed down through the male line for 126 generations. As a result, the Imperial Family has never experienced a change of dynasty, and members of the Imperial Family do not have family names or surnames. Under the current Imperial House Law, the right of succession to the throne is restricted to princes only. However, at present there are only three princes, and if this situation continues, the very survival of the monarchy itself is in jeopardy. Some argue that the succession to the throne by the princesses should be recognised, whereas others argue that the branch families of the Imperial House known as "miyake" that were driven out of the Imperial Family by the US occupation forces after WWII should be reinstated. Nowadays the debate over the future of the monarchy is confused. The global community is negative towards the current Japanese monarchical system. In 2024, the UN’s CEDAW criticised the Japanese system as sexist and practically unrealistic. It is also persistently pointed out that the current system, as it stands, makes it almost impossible to maintain a sustainable succession to the throne in the first place. On the other hand, it is hardly known that the traditional Japanese concept of the family is based on the dual structure of the "ie", which emphasises nuclear family values, and the "uji", which emphasises genealogical continuity through patrilineal descent rather than distance of blood relations, and that the succession to the throne has been based on the latter principle. In addition, miyake played an important role in supporting this, but many people do not even know of miyake’s existence because they cannot understand primary historiographies in classical Japanese/Chinese. Are traditional imperial systems really unsustainable in modern and contemporary times without side-chamber systems? Today, there has been a movement to analyse possibility of the succession to the throne using natural scientific methods from the perspective of gynecology, probability theory and sex chromosomes. This paper critically discusses the rationality of the traditional imperial system and the new proposed imperial system proposed in recent years, based on precedents from primary historical resources of each period and the latest scientific considerations. The key is statistical data calculated from both traditional and modern European views of the family based on genealogical records of branch families.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	japanese studies,arts and humanities(all),social sciences(all),biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology(all),medicine(all),general ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Nov 2025 16:30
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2025 00:35
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101099
DOI:	10.13140/RG.2.2.16306.93125

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