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TOKYO, June 2-- 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. | 
