TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government on Wednesday announced countermeasures against a U.N. committee on discrimination against women that has called for reviewing Japan's male-only imperial succession law.

The government will ensure that Japan's voluntary contributions to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are not used to fund the activities of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Foreign Ministry spokesman Toshihiro Kitamura told a press conference.

It will also suspend until the end of the current fiscal year through March a program to invite committee members to Japan to help them understand the country's culture and traditions, Kitamura said, adding the government notified the United Nations of its retaliatory steps on Monday.

In October, the committee, comprised of experts on women's issues from around the world, concluded in a report that the succession rule stipulated in the 1947 Imperial House Law is considered contrary to "the object and purpose" of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly.

Japan has lodged a protest with the committee, saying the imperial succession system is linked to Japan's "foundation" and that the reference to the law is "unacceptable" and should be deleted from the report.

The succession rule should not be regarded as "discrimination" as defined by the convention, given that "eligibility to ascend the imperial throne is not part of basic human rights," Kitamura said.

According to Kitamura, Japan has paid about 20 million yen ($130,000) or 30 million yen in annual contributions to the U.N. human rights office, which is tasked with managing the committee, but the funds have not actually been used for the committee at least since 2005.

Japan has invited eight committee members in total since fiscal 2017 under the program, which was expected to resume in fiscal 2024 after being halted in fiscal 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2016, Japan harshly opposed a recommendation from the committee to amend the Imperial House Law that was included in a draft of the concluding observations of that year's review. The final version ended up with no reference to the issue.

Japan's hereditary monarchy is said to stretch back more than 2,600 years, including early mythological leaders whose existence is disputed, with the throne consistently passed down the male line. Under the Imperial House Law, females cannot ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Amid a shortage of successors, revising the succession rule has long been debated in Japan. Emperor Naruhito, 64, has only three heirs -- his brother, Crown Prince Fumihito, 59, his nephew Prince Hisahito, 18, and his uncle Prince Hitachi, 89.

The law requires female members to leave the imperial family upon marriage to a commoner. Princess Aiko, 23, is the only child of the emperor and empress.

Despite parliament calling on the government to promptly hold discussions on the issue of succession amid a shrinking imperial family in a 2017 nonbinding resolution, a government panel tasked with studying ways to ensure a stable imperial succession said in 2021 that the issue "should be judged in the future."

In the report issued last October, the same U.N. committee also urged Japan to reconsider its requirement for married couples to use the same surname.