My junior high social studies teacher opened our very first class with a startling declaration: \u201cLet\u2019s memorize the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The classroom erupted in protest. Impossible, we groaned.<\/p>\n
And yet the young brain is a curious instrument. After reciting the preamble aloud again and again, its cadences settled somewhere deep inside me. Before long, I could more or less summon it from memory.<\/p>\n
The articles that followed were another matter entirely. Their substance was dense, their logic hard to follow, and no amount of repetition could lodge them securely in my adolescent mind.<\/p>\n
Article 1, for example, describes the emperor as \u201cthe symbol of the state and of the unity of the people.\u201d But why a symbol, and a symbol of what exactly?<\/p>\n
And what were we to make of the phrase \u201cderiving his position from the will of the people\u201d?<\/p>\n
Even with the teacher\u2019s earnest explanations, we junior high students could not quite grasp what it meant.<\/p>\n
Decades later, that question has returned in a different form, amid the current debate over how to secure a sustainable number of imperial family members.<\/p>\n
The speaker and vice speaker of the Lower House, together with the president and vice president of the Upper House, have drawn up a document billed as the \u201cconsensus of the legislative branch\u201d and handed it to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.<\/p>\n
Among the ideas reportedly included is the adoption into the current imperial household of male-line males from former branches of the imperial family.<\/p>\n
On the basis of this consensus, the government now intends to pursue a revision of the Imperial House Law during the current Diet session.<\/p>\n
The finer points have been deferred. The specifics remain opaque. The ball has been sent, neatly and deliberately, into the government\u2019s court.<\/p>\n
Yet, for many citizens, the deeper question lies elsewhere: whether Japan will continue to insist on imperial succession solely by male-line males, or whether it will open the door to female emperors and emperors of female lineage.<\/p>\n
In the Japanese succession debate, \u201cmale line\u201d means descent from the imperial family through the father, while \u201cfemale line\u201d means descent through the mother.<\/p>\n
These fundamental questions, however, are left untouched in the document. They are sidestepped with notable care, while the adoption proposal is allowed to advance quietly in their place.<\/p>\n
One wonders whether this can truly be said to reflect the collective will of the people.<\/p>\n
The aging brain, too, is a curious thing. I forget what I ate yesterday, yet the preamble I memorized half a century ago still rises unbidden to my lips.<\/p>\n
As for what \u201cthe will of the people\u201d means, now more than ever, I find myself unsure.<\/p>\n
–The Asahi Shimbun, June 17<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My junior high social studies teacher opened our very first class with a startling declaration: \u201cLet\u2019s memorize the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[172,8,173,170,171],"class_list":["post-42262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-asahi-shimbun","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-vox-populi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}