Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday urged the leaders of both houses of the Diet to deepen discussions on Emperor Akihito's possible abdication.
Abe presented an interim report, presented on Monday by a government panel, to the heads and deputy heads of both chambers as his administration seeks to gain the cooperation of ruling and opposition parties in making legal pathways to enable the 83-year-old Emperor to relinquish the throne.
The government plans to submit a relevant bill to the Diet as early as April, envisioning special one-off legislation to allow the Emperor to abdicate. Currently, only posthumous succession is allowed under the 1947 Imperial House Law.