House of Representatives Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga said he hopes that interparty discussions on proposals to secure a sufficient number of imperial family members will be launched as early as next week, according to senior officials of ruling and opposition parties.
Nukaga indicated the desire when he met with the senior officials at the Lower House speaker's official residence on Tuesday night.
The interparty discussions are likely to center on the two proposals presented by a government expert panel in 2021 of allowing female members to retain their imperial family status after marriage and of allowing male members in the paternal line of former imperial family branches to be adopted into the family.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has already submitted to Nukaga and House of Councilors President Hidehisa Otsuji its opinion, supporting the two proposals as "necessary."
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan argues that it is an urgent issue to allow female imperial family members to remain in the family after marriage.