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.
The whiplash of learning japan has a royal family in modern ages is wild.
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).
Wow. Definitely sounds like this is fs the most pressing issue facing Japanese society.
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.
