The bill will be sent to parliament, where lawmakers are aiming to pass it before the current session ends next month. Abdication is not possible under current law and the last time an emperor stepped down was in 1817. The bill is one-off legislation that would allow only Akihito to step down, with no provisions for future emperors. There are only four heirs in the line of succession - Akihito's two middle-aged sons, Akihito's octogenarian brother, and Hisahito, the 10-year-old son of Akihito's younger son. In 2005, with hopes for a male heir fading, then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi prepared to challenge a 1947 law limiting succession to male descendants of an emperor.

Source: bd News24 May 19, 2017 02:48 UTC