Running out of royals: why calls are growing to let Japan’s princess Aiko take the throne

Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Princess Aiko and Empress Masako are seen on the screen after the World Baseball Classic game between Japan and Australia in March 2026. Photograph: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenJapanese Emperor Naruhito, Princess Aiko and Empress Masako are seen on the screen after the World Baseball Classic game between Japan and Australia in March 2026. Photograph: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty ImagesRunning out of royals: why calls are growing to let Japan’s princess Aiko take the throne More people in Japan are asking why the nation’s favourite royal, 24-year-old princess Aiko, will never be empress, with a recent poll saying 72% favour a woman emperor

Her face is splashed across magazine covers. Fans flock to online stores to snap up her outfits. At official engagements, huge crowds wait in the crushing heat to catch a glimpse of a woman revered for her ‘regal dignity, beauty and aura’.

Princess Aiko, 24, is the most popular member of Japan’s imperial family, but according to law she will never be empress and, as the country runs out of royals, more and more Japanese people are asking why.

Read moreThe debate has gathered momentum in the years since Aiko, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, has transformed from a shy primary school pupil into a young woman at ease with public and media attention.

Under a law established almost 140 years ago, women are forbidden from ascending to Japan’s Chrysanthemum throne. But the regulation defies public support for changes that would allow a woman to become empress regnant and avert a looming succession crisis.

The imperial family is facing the same demographic winds buffeting the rest of the country: three decades ago it had 30 members; now there are just 16, only five of them men.

View image in fullscreenPrincess Aiko attends the spring garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in April this year. Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty ImagesJapanese citizens support a change, irrespective of their political loyalties. In a poll conducted in April by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, 72% favoured the idea of a woman becoming emperor, while just 10% opposed it.

Pressure to change the male-only succession law, passed in 1947 but based on legislation introduced during the Meiji era in 1889, is intensifying, forcing the conservative government of Sanae Takaichi to address the dearth of male heirs to the 1,500-year-old imperial throne.

Just three men comprise the current line of succession – Emperor Naruhito’s younger brother, Crown Prince Akishino; his son, Prince Hisahito; and the emperor’s uncle, Prince Hitachi, who is 90.

If Prince Hisahito, a 20-year-old university student, and the first male born into the imperial family for four decades, does not have a son, the line of succession will come to an end within a generation.

View image in fullscreenPrince Hisahito is seen in ceremonial attire during his coming-of-age rites in the Imperial Palace on his 19th birthday in 2025. Photograph: APPrevious governments have tried to solve the succession question by considering legislation that would finally bring gender equality to the rarefied corridors of the imperial palace in Tokyo. But pressure from conservative MPs – and Hisahito’s birth in 2006 – brought the debate to an abrupt end.

Takaichi triggered anger this summer when her party and its conservative allies pushed through amendments that will safeguard the male-only succession for generations.

The changes, which go into effect later this month, allow women to retain their royal status after marrying non-royals, and resurrects male-line descendants belonging to 11 “collateral branches” of the family that left the imperial fold after the end of the second world war.

In theory, that means a distant male relative could be “adopted” into the heart of the family provided he is single and aged over 15. If he marries and his wife gives birth to a son, that child would then join the line of succession.

The fate of Japan’s imperial family has attracted international attention. In 2024, the UN women’s rights committee urged the Japanese government to allow a female emperor. Tokyo dismissed the intervention as “regrettable” and “inappropriate,” saying the imperial succession was a matter of “fundamental national identity”.

The UN and Japanese public opinion have crashed against the hard rock of conservative ideology espoused by Takaichi – Japan’s first female prime minister.

View image in fullscreenNaruhito, as crown prince, with his wife, Masako, and Princess Aiko at the Hayama Imperial Villa in 2003. Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty ImagesDuring the succession revision debate, she told lawmakers: “The unparalleled historic fact that the imperial line has been maintained through the male line for 126 generations is the foundation of the emperor’s authority and legitimacy.”

Takaichi has also said that the revisions were intended only to ease the succession crisis, not to settle the debate over female emperors.

But Prof Makoto Okawa, an expert on imperial lineage and succession at Chuo University in Tokyo, said the recent amendment “clearly points towards maintaining the male-line succession”.

Aiko’s popularity could force a rethink, however, given the “growing sense of unease among members of the public about excluding someone from the possibility of succeeding to the throne solely because she is a woman”.

“Many people in Japan have watched Princess Aiko grow up. The composure, dignity and grace she has displayed in recent diplomatic and other official engagements have contributed to the strong public support she enjoys. Many people see her as embodying and carrying forward Emperor Naruhito’s understanding of the role of the emperor as a symbol of the nation who remains close to the people.”

View image in fullscreenPrincess Aiko talks with kindergarten children in September 2025. Photograph: The Asahi Shimbun/Getty ImagesJin, an Aiko fan who manages an Instagram account devoted to the princess, said the government had ignored the overwhelming consensus behind a change to the male-only succession law.

In her eyes, Aiko is more than qualified to succeed her father.

“She is the emperor’s only direct descendant, and her character and dignity are of the highest caliber. Aiko is someone who is clearly worthy of serving as a symbol of Japan.”

Aiko – or another future female member of the imperial family – would not be the first female to ascend the throne. Japan has had eight female monarchs, although their role was to sustain the imperial line until a male heir was born. Go-Sakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770, was the most recent.

Japan’s royals, who are forbidden from commenting on politics, have employed typically nuanced language to communicate their unease with the status quo.

At a press conference in June, the emperor said of the succession debate in parliament: “I hope discussions on how to secure the number of imperial family members … gain the understanding of the people.”

His younger brother, Akishino, went further, telling reporters: “It is important for society to keep progressing … I believe the duty of the imperial family is to act in response to the requests of society … I do not think there are any differences between women and men.”