Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Japan has passed legislation paving the way for 83-year-old Emperor Akihito to abdicate. The law sets the stage for the first abdication of a reigning monarch in two centuries, in a royal family which has a history stretching back 2,600 years.
[...] According to the 1947 Imperial House Law that regulates the line of imperial succession, the emperor cannot step down. The last Japanese monarch to abdicate was Emperor Kokaku, who left in favor of his son back in 1817.
Another issue the Japanese government will discuss is the continuity of the heirs, as women are not allowed to inherit the throne. Additionally, a woman from the imperial family who marries outside the family is then excluded. Akihito has another son, Prince Akishino, and a grandson, Hisahito, aged just 10. All the other members of the royal family are female.
Source: RT
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Monday June 12 2017, @07:23AM
(1) He's the symbolic head of state;
(2) Japan;
(3) Japan is an archipeligo [wikipedia.org] of over 6800 islands, not just one island;
(4) he's the symbolic head of state and so respected for that reason;
(5) as are a great many other symbolic heads of state;
(6) the Japanese people.
HTH.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.