国际英语新闻:Japan's lower house passes bill on Emperor Akihito's abdication

TOKYO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan's lower house of parliament on Friday passed a bill enabling Emperor Akihito to step down and pass his duties over to Crown Prince Naruhito.

The abdication bill states that the public understand and sympathize with the wishes of the Emperor and says that his abdication should come within three years of the announcement of the law.

The bill was written with only the current Emperor in mind, as the government apparently did not want to set a precedent for future emperors.

The current Imperial House Law only allows posthumous succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne and has no clauses for emperor's abdicating.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government's top spokesperson, however, who has been chairing parliamentary deliberations over the bill, said the new bill could indeed set a precedent for abdications by future emperors.

After just two days of deliberations on the issue, members of six ruling and opposition parties approved the bill by a majority vote at a lower house plenary session on Friday.

The opposition Liberal Party and Yukio Edano, former secretary general of the Democratic Party, abstained from the vote, however, and Shizuka Kamei, an independent lawmaker who formerly served as financial services minister, objected to the bill.

Some of those abstaining and objecting to the bill believe that the Imperial House Law should be revised to allow abdications by future emperors.

In terms of timing for Emperor Akihito's abdication, the government has been considering December 2018, as the possible timing for the move, as this is when the emperor will turn 85 years old.

The nation's era name (gengo), informed sources said, which lasts for as long as the emperor is on the throne, will change at the beginning of 2019.

The bill will be deliberated and voted on by a special upper house committee and is expected to become law next week.

Last August, Emperor Akihito made a rare public televised address during which he suggested he wanted to step down because his advancing age and weakening health was making it difficult for him to carry out his official duties to the best of his ability.

Emperor Akihito's abdication would mark the first time a Japanese emperor has abdicated the throne in around 200 years.