CODE IN TOKYO

I Saw One Reason Japan Falls Behind in the Debate Over Imperial Succession

I do not intend to get overly heated about politics.

But recently, while watching the news about the debate over imperial succession, I found myself thinking, “This may be exactly why Japan struggles to change.”

Under the current Imperial House Law, only male descendants in the male line can inherit the throne.

And in the next generation, there is only one young male member of the imperial family who fits that condition. He is the current Emperor’s nephew.

That is a very fragile system.

Of course, he may marry in the future and have a son. But no one can know that.

In an age when the concubine system is not even something that can be seriously discussed, the natural topic should be whether the male-line-only rule itself needs to be reviewed.

Would it not be better to allow female emperors or emperors descended through the female line?

Female emperors and female-line emperors are separate issues. Still, many people feel uncomfortable with the current system in which someone cannot become emperor simply because she is a woman.

Yet one proposal that has emerged from politics is to adopt male descendants from former imperial branch families into the imperial family.

When I first heard that, honestly, I thought, “They would go that far?”

These are families that have lived as private citizens for decades after the war. The idea is to bring some of them back into the imperial family because they are male-line descendants.

Do they want to avoid including women in the line of succession that badly?

That is how it looks to me.

The Values of Older Japanese Men Still Remain in National Systems

I am in my fifties, so I am firmly on the older-man side myself.

That is why I say this partly as self-criticism: I think strong sexist assumptions still remain among many older Japanese men.

Of course, not everyone is like that.

But if you have worked in Japanese companies for a long time, you have seen plenty of it.

People say they want to increase the number of women in management, while casually saying things like, “Women are emotional after all.”

Their view of international relations is often outdated too. They say Japan needs to globalize, but when the topic turns to China or Southeast Asia, there is still a condescending tone.

The sense that Japan is an advanced country and that Japanese people are the leaders of Asia has not disappeared.

What era are they living in?

China’s technological capabilities have risen rapidly, and in fields such as AI and EVs, there are already areas where Japanese companies are the ones trying to catch up. Southeast Asian countries continue to grow as well.

Even so, inside the heads of many older Japanese men, the Japan of the 1980s and 1990s is still alive.

Japanese products are the best in the world. China makes cheap goods. Southeast Asia is behind Japan. Women support men.

They no longer say these things openly as much as before.

But have their values really changed?

I am deeply skeptical.

Members of Parliament Also Represent Older Japanese Society

I do not think members of parliament are uniquely outdated.

Rather, they may be a concentrated version of the upper layers of Japanese society.

They are older, mostly male, and have spent many years inside the same world. They also carry memories of past success.

This is very similar to presidents and executives at Japanese companies.

And these are the people who make important decisions for the country and for companies.

That is why Japan does not change.

In reality, it has become difficult to maintain imperial succession through male-line males alone.

Even so, instead of moving the discussion forward on female emperors or female-line emperors, a proposal appears to adopt men from former imperial branch families.

The same thing happens inside companies.

The current system has reached its limit, but people do not try to change the system itself. Instead, they add Excel sheets and manual work to preserve the old structure.

They do not change institutions to match reality.

They bend reality in order to protect the institution.

Japan Is Not Unable to Change. It Does Not Want to Change.

Japan is slow in digital transformation. Its gender gap remains poor. Decision-making is slow.

I used to think this was a problem of technical ability or competence.

Recently, I have started to feel differently.

Japan is not unable to change.

It does not want to change.

Because changing would mean rejecting the values people have long believed were correct.

This is especially difficult for people at the top of organizations.

Can someone who has spent 40 years believing that men should be above women, that Japan is Asia’s advanced country, and that the Japanese way is superior suddenly change those values at 60 or 70?

Probably not easily.

I am the same.

Now that I am in my fifties, there are times when I see how younger people think and feel, “That cannot be right.”

But when that happens, I think I need to pause and ask myself a question.

Is the other person really wrong?

Or have I simply become old?

When I look at the debate over imperial succession, I wonder whether the older men at the very top of Japan are asking themselves that question.

Instead of accepting women, they look for male-line descendants who have lived as private citizens for decades and bring them into the imperial family.

Can we really start calling someone “Your Highness” when that person was a private citizen until yesterday?

Is what they want to protect so badly really tradition?

Or is it simply that they cannot let go of the values they have believed in for so long?

I felt as if I had seen a small part of why Japan is falling behind the world.

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