There have been talks about changing the laws to allow female members of the royal family to retain their status when marrying commoners. I think that's practical if they want greater chances of producing an heir.
Not that I care much anyway, I'm not quite fond of royalty.
I guess she was disappointed with the royal life, after the birth of Prince Hisahito of Akishino. Before that, it was widely speculated that she would one day be named as the empress. After it became clear that she would never became the empress, she gave up the royal privileges.
Royal title is not that important when it has no real power behind it. It is money which gives you real status nowadays anyway.
It would be much harder for her, or anyone, if instead of royal title they need to give up all money and work like normal people.
Money = real power. It is not Middle Ages anymore to care about empty titles.
True. For a long time the nobility in many countries has stuck up their noses at the merchant class, looking at them as no better than just peasants with better nutrition. In fact in Japan prior to modernizing, sumptuary laws ensured that merchants would have a hard time enjoying their hard-earned money that they ended up splurging all their cash on extravagant dishes instead!
Those days are over, the merchant class rule the world now. Take that nobles!
The Japanese royal family may be the most endangered of its kind in the world. There are just four individuals in the line of succession for the throne, and only one of them is less than 50 years old. Perhaps they should seriously consider adopting members from the other royal families (a practice which they abandoned during the allied occupation after the WW2).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_succession_to_the_Japanese_throneI didn't bother opening the link but aside from the royal family, do Japan still have a nobility like they do in England where the royal family can marry into?
