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Japan's Crown Princess Masako pregnant
( 2001-05-15 16:04 ) (7 )

Japan Crown Princess pregnant

Japan's Princess Masako is pregnant after nearly eight years of marriage, domestic media said on Tuesday, raising hopes that the world's oldest monarchy can avoid a succession crisis.

A spokesman for the Imperial Household Agency said there would be a news conference on the subject later in the day.

No royal males have been born since 1965, when the crown prince's younger brother, Prince Akishino, was born and Akishino's two children are girls.

This has sparked talk that Japan may have to change its strict males-only succession statute to permit a female to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne, the world's oldest, and avoid a succession crisis.

The Imperial Household Agency said in mid-April that Masako, 37, was showing signs of pregnancy and would be examined by doctors to confirm whether she was with child.

The baby could be born in early December, media said then.

Masako suffered a miscarriage in late 1999 after a highly publicised pregnancy sparked a media circus.

Domestic media came under heavy fire from the Imperial Household Agency and even Naruhito and Masako herself for its frenzied coverage of the 1999 pregnancy, which some critics said may have contributed to the miscarriage.

If the baby is a boy, he will be second in line to the throne after his father, Naruhito.

TRADITION AND CHANGE

Japan's main ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said earlier this month that it would consider for the first time legal changes to let women inherit the throne, a change that new Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he would welcome.

"Personally, I think a female 'emperor' is fine," Koizumi -- who appointed a record five women to his new cabinet -- told reporters at his official residence earlier this month.

"I haven't heard in what form the discussion on the issue will be handled. But I would like people to have thorough discussions as it will be a big issue in the future."

The very thought of a female on the throne is anathema to some conservatives, who in pre-war days saw the emperor as divine. But calls are mounting from politicians and academics to remove what may be Japan's last legally codified gender inequality.

Tradition provides a clear precedent.

Seven of the country's 125 sovereigns have been women, the last in 1770. Legend also has it that the imperial family is descended from a goddess, the sun deity.

Only after Japan's emergence as a modern state in 1868 were laws enacted banning a female from inheriting the throne.

Nor is there anything in the post-war Constitution about royal succession. It is a separate statute, the Imperial Household Law, that prohibits a female ruler as well as adoption.

Leaders from both ruling and some opposition parties have voiced support for allowing females to succeed the throne on the grounds of gender equality.

Emperor Akihito, 67, ascended to the throne in 1989 after the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito.