TOKYO: Japan is planning for Emperor Akihito to retire and be replaced by his eldest son on January 1, 2019, reports said Wednesday, as the country works on a legal framework for its first abdication in 200 years.
Akihito, 83, expressed a desire in August to abdicate after nearly three decades on the Chrysanthemum Throne, citing his advancing age and weakening health.
Major national newspapers -- the Yomiuri, Asahi, Mainichi and Nikkei -- cited unnamed sources as saying Crown Prince Naruhito, 56, would succeed his father on New Year´s Day 2019.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment on the reports at his regular news conference on Wednesday.
After Akihito´s announcement last year, the government established a panel of experts to help decide how best to proceed as the issue is fraught with historical and legal challenges.
Though abdications have occurred in Japan´s long imperial history there hasn´t been one in 200 years and under current laws there is no legal mechanism for one.
The six-member panel has discussed various legal options, with speculation rampant it will propose parliament pass a special one-time law to allow Akihito to step down.
The leading opposition Democratic Party, however, opposes a one-time change, arguing that would not ensure stable future successions. It has advocated a revision to the permanent law that governs the imperial family.
Abdication is a highly sensitive issue in light of Japan´s modern history of war waged in the name of Akihito´s father, the late emperor Hirohito who died in 1989.
Some scholars and politicians worry that the abdication issue could open a can of worms and risk Japan´s monarchs -- constitutionally constrained to being the symbol of the nation -- becoming subject to political manipulation.
The panel is expected to compile a summary of its views on the issue in January.
Akihito has keenly embraced the symbolic role imposed on the imperial family after Japan´s defeat in World War II.
Previous emperors including his father, Hirohito, had been treated as semi-divine.
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