FEATURE: Ex-imperial family descendant in spotlight amid succession crisis

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Thursday January 5, 6:04 AM

FEATURE: Ex-imperial family descendant in spotlight amid succession crisis
(Kyodo) _ (EDS: ONE PHOTO ATTACHED TO THIS STORY IS AVAILABLE VIA E-MAIL. THE PHOTO ADVISORY IS TO FOLLOW.)
Tsuneyasu Takeda, 30, goes to work, cooks and enjoys karaoke, a person seemingly not much different from others his age -- except that he was born to one of the 11 Japanese imperial branch families divested of royal status shortly after World War II.
In a country where the imperial family is now forbidden to interfere in politics, Takeda has attracted media attention by calling for other male descendants of the former imperial branch families to do something to deal with the looming succession crisis by considering their "responsibility" as such descendants.
No male heir has been born in the royal family for 40 years.
"Historically, imperial branch families existed as bloodline 'spares' for the imperial line when the main family was in peril. Though we are now in different circumstances, each of us should try to find out what can be done, and have the resolve to return to royal status," Takeda, great-great grandson of Emperor Meiji, said in an interview.
Takeda's idea clashes with a government panel's report on imperial succession, which proposed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Nov. 24 allowing females and their descendants to ascend the throne.

The panel ruled out having former imperial branch family members return to royal status because it would be difficult to win public support given that they have lived as commoners for nearly 60 years.
Feeling that the roles of the imperial branch families are not very well known to the public, Takeda, also a researcher on emperors, published a book in mid-December titled "Katarare-nakatta Kozoku-tachi no Shinjitsu" (The truth not told about imperial family members).
Public attention has been on whether 4-year-old Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, can become a reigning empress, but some experts and politicians, along with Takeda, have argued that the heart of the issue is whether to allow the imperial line to shift to a female line, for example by Aiko marrying a commoner and her child becoming an emperor or a reigning empress, something which they say has never happened before.
"The panel's proposal is going to change the principle behind the 2000-year-old tradition of imperial succession, which has been preserved by passing down the throne only to male-line heirs," said Takeda, who is an executive of a public-service corporation set up to support Japanese people who stay overseas a long time.
Under the 1947 Imperial House Law, only male heirs who have emperors on their father's side can reign. There has been speculation that Crown Princess Masako, a 42-year-old former diplomat, is suffering severe stress due to pressure to produce a male heir.
Japan had eight female monarchs between the sixth and 18th centuries, but all of them were male-line heirs and none gave birth after their enthronement to children who later ascended the throne.
Takeda wrote in his book that Japan's supposedly unbroken male-line known as "Bansei Ikkei" faced a succession crisis three times in the past but was preserved by Emperor Keitai who took the throne in the sixth century, Emperor Go-Hanazono in the 15th century and Emperor Kokaku in the 18th century.
In all three cases, however, a male of a male-line took the throne, even if they can be genealogically regarded as "strangers" rather than a close female-line heir, he said in the book.
Emperor Go-Hanazono and Emperor Kokaku, the 119th emperor who is the lineal ancestor of all subsequent emperors up to the present 125th, both came from collateral branch houses.
In 1947, 51 members of the 11 branch families were divested of their royal status, while the three families of the brothers of Emperor Hirohito (posthumously Emperor Showa) remained under the U.S.-led occupation in Japan after the end of World War II.
"The former imperial family members had never earned money by themselves (until then). Some have repeatedly failed in the business they started, some became founders of new religions, and some were deceived and had their assets ripped off," Takeda wrote.
Takeda quoted his late grandfather Tsuneyoshi Takeda, formerly Prince Takeda, as saying that being divested of his royal status came "with perfect timing" as he had not felt comfortable being treated specially, but at the same time he felt "bewildered."
Tsuneyoshi later devoted his life to promoting sports -- working to organize the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Summer Games and becoming a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Takeda said in the book that coming from a former imperial branch family "continues to bind my life."
Members of the former branch families still have exchanges with the imperial family and some take public posts or jobs that were originally assumed by imperial families such as the supreme priest of Ise Jingu shrine, where Amaterasu Omikami, the ancestral "kami" or god of the imperial family, is worshiped, Takeda said.
Currently there are eight single males of the remaining former branch families who have emperors on their father's side and who are above age 20, he said.
In the book, a senior official of the Imperial Household Agency was quoted as saying at a meeting after the war to discuss the status of the branch families that any member who is divested of royal status should lead a decent life even after becoming a commoner with "the awareness that a time may come when by some chance they may take the throne."
"It is a fact that the 11 branch families...have inherited environmental privileges. So even though they have been divested of imperial status...they should feel the responsibility of noblesse oblige," Takeda said in the book and suggested that a former collateral branch male member marrying a princess could become one way for their return to imperial status.
Takeda argued that questions like "Why do we have to preserve the male-line tradition?" are off the point.
"What if Horyuji Temple in Nara Prefecture, the world's oldest wooden building, is rebuilt with concrete because it's difficult to keep it as it is?" This is a question he has often asked as a way to explain his point on male-line succession.
"The answer is, it would become worthless. And that is just what is going to happen to Japan's imperial family. It doesn't mean that a female-line is bad, but it's just not suitable for the imperial household," Takeda said.
"The world's oldest lineage which has been continuing through the male-line -- that is what we call the emperor's family," he said.
The idea of a male-line heir taking over the house from his father is not something unique but is a value widely shared in current Japanese society, Takeda said, referring to the custom of a woman taking her husband's surname when getting married.
With the government planning to submit a bill to revise the Imperial House Law during a regular Diet session set to begin in January, Takeda stressed that more time should be spent before it starts to consider allowing female-line heirs.
"I have no intention of leading the people in a certain way or giving detailed policies on how things should be, but I simply want to say, let's stop and take a look back at Japan's history. I don't think we will lose anything by doing so."