particularly if the first wife could not produce male offspring. The Imperial Household Law of 1947, enacted under Japan's post-war constitution after World War II, a further restriction was instituted: only the descendants of the male line of Emperor Taishō (the father of then-emperor Hirohito) could be part of the official imperial family and have a claim to succession, excluding all other male lines of the imperial dynasty and specifically barring the emperor and other members of the imperial family from adopting children. Under Chapter 1: Article 1 of the Imperial Household Law, "The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by a male offspring in the male line belonging to the Imperial Lineage". The line of succession is detailed in Article 2 as: The eldest son of the Emperor The eldest son of the Emperor's eldest son Other descendants of the eldest son of the Emperor The second son of the Emperor and his descendants Other descendants of the Emperor Brothers of the Emperor and their descendants Uncles of the Emperor and their descendants Situation The Japanese imperial dynasty, descended from the Emperor Jimmu, is perhaps the oldest patrilineage in the world, and members of that single dynasty have ruled Japan for nearly 2700 years. The ancient Japanese system is of agnatic succession, generally by primogeniture, with the caveat that, in case the imperial family lacked heirs, they may adopt a boy from collateral cadet branches of the Imperial lineage. Four such cadet branches of the imperial family had, from ancient times, held the privilege of supplying an heir in adoption to the throne of Japan. The need for adoption rarely arose, because Emperors normally had several consorts, and the sons of all consorts were equally eligible to succeed. All of these traditions and solutions had been discontinued or prohibited by the 1950s. Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) was the Emperor of the Japanese Empire during World War II. After the war ended, a new constitution was drawn up for Japan which, among other things, limited the succession to agnatic descendants of Emperor Shōwa's father, the Emperor Taishō, thus excluding cadet branches of the Imperial family. It also prohibited the ancient and well-accepted Imperial Japanese practise of adoption. Since the days of the Emperor Meiji, the practise of having several consorts had been discontinued. The imperial family, therefore, became very small after the new constitution of Japan was adopted in 1947. By