Japan to halt funding for a UN women’s rights panel over call to end male-only imperial succession

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Wednesday said it will freeze voluntary funding for a United Nations’ women’s rights panel that called for an end to the country’s male-only imperial succession rule.

The unusual step comes in response to a report published in October by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW, urging Japan to revise the male-only succession rule under the Imperial House Law to allow a female emperor.

The 1947 law, which largely preserves conservative pre-war family values, only allows a male to succeed to the throne and forces female royal members who marry commoners to lose their royal status.

Japan on Monday informed the CEDAW that it will be excluded from a list of recipients of the country’s annual voluntary contributions, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Toshihiro Kitamura said.

The government sought the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which manages CEDAW, not to use Japanese contributions for it activities. Japan will also suspend a visit to Japan by committee members planned by the end of March, Kitamura said.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in October called the report “regrettable” and “inappropriate,” and said Japan had requested the removal of the reference from the report.

On Wednesday, Kitamura reiterated Japan’s position that the qualifications for the imperial succession is not part of basic rights and that the male-only succession under the Imperial House Law does not violate the basic rights of women and that it is not subject to discrimination against women.

Japan’s rapidly dwindling imperial family currently has only 16 members, including four men. The youngest male member of the imperial family, Prince Hisahito, is currently the last heir apparent, raising a concern for the system.

Still, the conservative government is looking for a way to keep the succession stable without relying on women, such as allowing the family to adopt new male members from former noble families that lost their status after World War II.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press