10/09/26 02:03:43
>>707 つづき
The battle has been looming for several years and the pressure on Princess Kiko, 39, and
Prince Akishino, 40, will be enormous. For Prince Akishino, becoming the father of a future emperor would
demand a sharp increase in royal duties and possible shift in demeanour. The alleged romances and
partying of his younger days remain a favorite subject of gossip magazines.
The couple will learn the sex of the unborn baby around May, but would be breaking
an imperial household taboo to reveal anything at that stage.
Crown Prince Naruhito has produced no male heir and the ill-health of his wife,
Princess Masako, makes the prospect of his doing so increasingly unlikely. Prince Akishino and
Princess Kiko have two daughters, Kako, 11, and Mako, 14, and until yesterday it was assumed
that their child-bearing days were behind them.
The fate of Mr Koizumi’s proposed amendments to the 1947 imperial law, which bars female
descendents from the throne, is now in doubt.
Successive opinion polls show overwhelming popular support for the amendments, and pushing them
through would have been a final legacy, Cabinet sources say. But Princess Kiko’s pregnancy
leaves the plans in doubt.
Analysts said that if Mr Koizumi successfully pressed ahead with his proposed revisions and the
child turns out to be a boy, the public would be left with the task of choosing between the legitimate
heir under the old law and Aiko, a toddler for whom the country has enormous affection.
Tsuneyasu Takeda, a veteran royal commentator, said: “Now people know a baby is on the way,
there is no time to create a new version of the Bill before the Diet session. The precondition of the
argument for revising imperial law was that we were facing a succession crisis. But now we know we
might get a baby boy so the crisis has not begun yet.”