Soon, a Japanese Empress?

Amid shirking male heirs, Japanese are opening up to the idea of a reigning Empress. Yet change may be decades away

A total of 90 per cent of respondents in a recent Kyodo News poll said they would support the idea of a reigning Empress of Japan. A big change from past years.

The results of the survey, conducted in March and April ahead of the fifth anniversary of Emperor Naruhito’s ascension to the throne, clearly show that the majority of the Japanese public approves of expanding the right to rule to women, given that the imperial succession is currently limited to men from the paternal line. Japan’s imperial family has been struggling with a shrinking number of male heirs, and that