Higashifushimi name from extinction. Dowager Princess Higashifushimi Kaneko became a commoner on 14 October 1947. She died in Tokyo in 1955. Kaya-no-miya The Kaya-no-miya house was formed by Prince Kuninori, second son of Prince Kuni Asahiko (first Kuni-no-miya, see above) Asaka-no-miya The Asaka-no-miya house was formed by Prince Yasuhiko, eighth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko. Higashikuni-no-miya The Higashikuni-no-miya house was formed by Prince Naruhiko, ninth son of Prince Kuni Asahiko. Prince Higashikuni Nobuhiko became simply "Higashikuni Nobuhiko" after the abolition of the Japanese aristocracy during the American occupation of Japan in 1947. Takeda-no-miya The Takeda-no-miya house was formed by Prince Tsunehisa, eldest son of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (second Kitashirakawa-no-miya). Proposal for reinstatement In January 2005, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi set up a panel consisting of 10 experts from various fields to discuss the succession law and possible ways to ensure stable succession in the imperial family. At that point, no male heir had been born to the Imperial family in 40 years, prompting concerns that there wouldn't be anyone to succeed Crown Prince Naruhito after he became emperor. The panel recommended giving eligibility to females and their descendants, that the first child, regardless of sex, be given priority in ascension, and that female family members who marry commoners be allowed to retain their imperial family member status. Itsuo Sonobe, deputy chairman of the 10-member government panel and a former Supreme Court justice, said that one of the panel's main concerns had been to find a solution that would win the people's support. Media opinion polls showed an overwhelming majority favoring the change, but the proposed revision was met with fierce opposition from conservatives, who held that the imperial dynasty, which had survived in an unbroken line stretching for nearly 2700 years, could not be dismissed and ended by a wave of deracinated modernity and uncaring recentism. They proposed instead that the government take recourse to ancient traditions under which such situations had been handled in the past. They pointed out that various branches of the old imperial family do still exist in Japan, and that the constitutional definition of the "imperial family" which prevails today was imposed by the occupying western forces as recently as 1947. They maintained that, rather than ending the ancient imperial dynasty, it would be more sensible and less radical to end the recent, western-imposed restrictions. , a member of the former Takeda-no-miya collateral house (nephew