History, politics and philosophy of the succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne: Is the Imperial Family of Japan "misogynistic"?

A distinctive feature of the Imperial Family of Japan is that, since the first Emperor Jinmu, the 126 successive emperors have, without exception, been succeeded by patrilineal line. For this reason, the Imperial Family has no experience of dynastic change, and no family name or surname. In autumn 2024, the UN's CEDAW recommended that the Japanese Imperial Household Law be corrected on the grounds that it is sexist. In response, leftists, feminists, and anti-monarchists who had long argued for a ‘female emperor’ should be allowed, welcomed this as a way to realise gender equality and respect global standards. On the other hand, right wingers, traditionalists, and Shinto priests vehemently opposed that it is ignorant of Japanese culture to criticise only Japan, even though Japan's restriction of the Emperor, the Shinto priest-king, to men is the common as that of the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Cohen and the Sultan. In fact, maintaining a stable succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne is a serious issue, as the current Imperial Family has only three princes. However, the current debate is not enough based on the primary resources of each period, and regardless of the pros and cons with them, there are strong tendencies at their two sides that the lack of understanding of the four shinnōke system at the Imperial Court in pre-modern and the modern European bias that the family is equal to the nuclear family. Is the Imperial Family of Japan sexist? Are European and Japanese monarchies comparable? What is the family in the first place in Japan and Western? From the perspective of political and philosophical history, this paper critically discusses contemporary debates based on an analysis of past examples of controversies surrounding the succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne. A key factor is the genealogy system of branch families.