PRINCESS KIKO of Japan gave birth this morning to the country’s future emperor, defusing the imperial succession crisis and provoking celebration across the country.
Commuters travelling to work were handed special editions put our by all the major Japanese newspapers after the princess gave birth to a 2.55kg (5lb 10oz) baby boy by Caesarean section at 8.27am Japanese time. The baby prince, who has not yet been named, is expected to be the 128th Emperor of Japan after his grandfather, Emperor Akihito, his uncle Crown Prince Naruhito, and his father, Prince Akishino.
There had been unprecedented speculation over the gender of the child, who is the first male to be born into the family for nearly 41 years. The lack of a male heir threatened the long-term extinction of the world’s oldest monarchy. Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Masako, have a four-year old daughter, Aiko, but under law women are not eligible to take the throne.
The Government was drawing up controversial plans to change the law to allow a reigning empress when it was announced that Princess Kiko, 39, who has two daughters, was pregnant. The arrival of a grandson to the Emperor means that such reforms will be put on hold indefinitely – although palace insiders say that the problem has been postponed, not solved, and that sooner or later there will have to be a change in the law.
Since early in the morning the Japanese television stations mounted a vigil in front of the central Tokyo hospital where the birth took place and outside the Imperial Palace. NHK TV displayed a map of the interior of the hospital, illustrating the spatial relationship between the operating theatre, the nearby room where Prince Akishino is waiting, and the Nurses’ Station.
Princess Kiko has been in hospital for three weeks, a measure of how seriously the pregnancy has been taken by the Imperial Household Agency, the government bureau which regulates royal affairs.
The decision to deliver the child by Caesarean section was made after Kiko was found to be suffering a complication known as partial placenta previa, in which the placenta forms low in the uterus and partially covers the cervix. The mother and child were both reported to be healthy after the short operation at the Aiiku Hospital.
Later today the baby prince will be presented with omamori-gatana, a Japanese “sword of protection”, a gift from the Emperor which symbolically wards off evil, as well as a toy dog and doll, made by craftsmen in traditional Japanese style. The sword has been forged by a master craftsman who has been designated as one of Japan’s “Living National Treasures”. The Emperor and Empress are on a visit to the northernmost island of Hokkaido and are expected to return at the weekend.
The child’s name has yet to be announced. In the case of the Crown Prince’s children, the choice of name must traditionally be approved by the Emperor, but Prince Akishino is allowed to make his own choice. “They must have consulted experts on the Chinese classics, so that the name won’t have been used before by other members of the imperial family, and the number of the strokes (in the characters of the name) is auspicious,” said Toshiya Matsuzaki, a journalist and expert on the royal family.
The naming ceremony, Meimei-no-gi, will take place seven days after the birth. A box containing a paper bearing the boy’s name will be placed on his pillow by Prince Akishino.
Before the announcement of the Princess’s pregnancy, the Government of Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister, was pressing ahead with legislation to allow a woman to succeed to the throne as a reigning empress. Polls suggested that more than two thirds of Japanese supported the idea, but it was vociferously opposed by a minority of conservative politicians and by Japan’s sometimes violent ultra-nationalists who refuse to contemplate any change to tradition.
But, according to a source close to the palace, a reform is inevitable. “Even if it is a boy, he would end up being the only male member of the Imperial Family, and that would be intolerable,” the source told The Times before the gender of the new arrival became known. “To put it very bluntly, you need to have ‘reserves’ [in case the heir should die].”
The compromise solution being developed by palace officials is to make a virtue of the excess of girl children in the Emperor’s family. At present, a princess who marries a non-Imperial Family member becomes a commoner herself, and her children are ineligible to succeed to the throne. The proposal is to allow imperial princesses to retain their royal status so that their future sons could take their place as “reserves” in the order of succession.
It is understood that the Government will spend 3.05 million yen (£13,800) a year to cover meals, clothes and servants for the baby. The additional money will increase the Akishino household’s annual income received from government to 54.9 million yen.
THE FUTURE EMPEROR
- The new heir is the son of Prince Akishino, 40, the Emperor’s younger son, and Princess Kiko, 39, the daughter of an economics professor. He has two sisters, Princess Mako, 14, and Princess Kako, 11
- The baby is now third in line to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne, behind Crown Prince Naruhito and Prince Akishino
- The Emperor of Japan is a 2600-year-old line descended in legend from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami. He has no political power, but is head of state, and is a constitutionally mandated “symbol of the people”
- He is also the highest priest of Japan’s indigenous Shinto religion. Every week he must conduct Shinto ceremonies in shrines at the Imperial Palace — to pray for his ancestors and for the well being of the nation
- The Prince will be educated at Gakushuin School and University, a private institution formerly known as the Peers’ School. He will also have a “prince education” from experts in tradition, religion and protocol
- Unlike European aristocrats, he cannot look forward to a youth of parties, yachts and skiing. The Japanese Imperial Family have no money of their own and live in seclusion, apart from their frequent public duties
- When Crown Prince Naruhito was born, there was a mini baby boom as couples hurried to conceive a daughter who might marry the future Emperor
