This headline reads like a threat
This is confusing. The article doesn’t mention why he may be the last, just that there is a debate over changing the succession rules to allow women to be Emperor. The succession line currently ends with Prince Hisahito but he is only 19, so why can’t he have children of his own?
Right? Without any specifics, it seems like a pointless thing to write since if the guy does end up having a boy, they could say the same about him, and about anybody else that came before.
I think it’s a statement of how short the line of succession actually is. In a robust royal family there is a whole chain of people who are in line for the throne should something happen. But it seems like the succession rules preclude everyone else living right now. And that’s precarious. Yes he could someday have children, hence the “may” in “may be the last.” The kicker is he could also not and then there would be no contingency.
The whiplash of learning japan has a royal family in modern ages is wild.
Loads of countries have royal families. I said many times that it’s not a stupid model and latest events in Poland only confirm this.
Long story short: Polish president has mostly decorative role but current far-right guy is now illegally usurping powers that are constitutionally not his and conspiring with Trump behind the government’s back.
In monarchies the King/Queen have pretty much the same role but their position is so weak that they simply smile and follow the orders. They have a lot to lose and nothing to gain.
How does that work? I heard of things like that in some countries. Venezuela is the only one that comes to mind. Idk if this is currently happening, but at least in the past there was an official and a non-official government because Maduro never accepted that he lost his ellections… but Poland seems to have a working democracy… or am I missing something? Is Poland that polarized?
It is extremely polarized but it’s not about elections. Couple examples of what the president is doing now:
- the constitution is clear that the government (so the Prime Minister and his staff) is responsible for foreign policy. When the president goes abroad he should get his instructions from the government and be accompanied by someone from the government. President ignored this before meeting Trump. He’s basically trying to run parallel foreign policy which is crazy dangerous and damaging
- new judges have to be swear in before the president. it’s just a ceremony but the president decided he will not swear in judges he doesn’t like
- same with ambassadors. according to the constitution those are nominated by the gov but the president decided he will only swear in those he approves
He’s basically using weak points of the constitution (which admittedly is simply badly written) to derail the government and is trying to rule in parallel where possible even though his post was designed as a purely ceremonial one.
Their government was an imperial model during WWII. Unless they killed off the royalty, why would you assume they had no descendants?
It’s not that, its just not something I have heard of, like, at all. Unlike most of the rest of the worlds royalty. Though them being less in the world news makes plenty of sense.
Well, things went about as well for Japan’s royalty as it did for Japan in general when they lost WWII.
Even more wild they call their king, emperor.
They call him tennou actually (heavenly king) but then when they were forced to open up, they heard of Napoleon and they thought damn that’s cool, we’ll tell foreigners to use that too.
Tennou has been in use for over 1350 years, and in the late 19th c. they thought their governmental subdivision (provinces) more closely matched that of France under Napoleon III I think (departments).
Sorry, mister Robespierre. We’ve failed you again
He failed himself and “his” people with the Reign of Terror paving the way for their greatest dictator.
Reign of terror is such a dramatic name but for some reason there is no name for the millions of people killed by the casual brutality of the ruling class during the previous centuries of noble rule.
They killed over 16.000 people in 10 months in the XVIII century France. Most victims (over 80%) were commoners too.
Adding jailed dead numbers range from over 25k to 50k. Again, in 10 months, that’s worth having a name. For the noble rule there are several times but the broader one is Absolute Monarchy / Absolutism.
Way to miss the point.
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I mean, unless this 19 year old dude stated that he will not have kids, period, I don’t see how “he may be the last”.
The fundamental question is not whether to allow male or female succession line but how to save the monarchy
The answer is “don’t”. Monarchies’ only use nowadays are as living relics of worse types of government and social structure.
Meh, they’re basically living tourist attractions these days with no more political power than a movie star.
