By Linda Sieg
Tokyo - She's two-and-a-half, the spitting image of her dad, and she could well become Japan's first reigning empress in more than two centuries.
Japan's littlest princess, Aiko, has been shielded from the public glare as media ponder the plight of her mother, Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat who has been suffering from a stress-related illness since December.
One week before her 11th wedding anniversary, however, Masako's sad tale is casting a spotlight on the simmering question of whether Japan will follow the trend of other modern monarchies and change its males-only succession law to let Aiko ascend the Chrysanthemum throne.
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| 'Their hearts go out to her' |
Royal watchers say Aiko's father, Crown Prince Naruhito, almost certainly had his daughter's unsettled future as well as his wife's present distress in mind when he uttered surprisingly blunt remarks last month about the pressures on Masako, 40, to adapt to conservative imperial ways.
"He made the frankest appeal that he could," said Keio University Professor Hidehiko Kusahara.
"It isn't possible for the crown prince to comment directly on the succession problem... so he did it that way."
Japanese TV, tabloids and mainstream media have been abuzz with gossip about Masako ever since the prince dropped his verbal bombshell before departing - without his wife - on a trip to Europe.
Explaining why Masako would stay home, Naruhito said she had "completely exhausted herself" trying to adapt to royal life since their marriage on June 9, 1993.
| 'There is no other option' |
"It is true that there were developments that denied Princess Masako's career up to then as well as her personality driven by her career," he told a news conference in words that reverberated within as well as outside the conservative court.
It was an unusually outspoken comment for one of Japan's self-effacing royals, who have kept their support among the public high since the emperor renounced his status as a "living god" after World War 2 largely by crafting an image of a "middle-class monarchy" - earnest, well-behaved, even dull.
"The crown prince was saying, 'Almost surely there is not going to be another child, so let Masako play the diplomatic role she wants to play and let's start making plans for an empress'," said Portland State University professor Kenneth Ruoff, author of The People's Emperor, a book about Japan's modern monarchy.
A promising diplomat when she took to heart Naruhito's pledge to protect her "forever with all his might" and accepted his proposal, Masako had dreamt of becoming a sort of "royal envoy".
Conservative courtiers, eager for an heir, had other ideas, and she has been able to take only five trips abroad.
After more than eight years of marriage during which the stylish, vibrant Masako seemed to fade into a demure, almost dowdy alter ego, she gave birth to Aiko in December 2001.
But neither the toddler princess nor the two daughters of Prince Akishino - Naruhito's younger brother and the last of the imperial male line - can inherit the throne.
Disappointment over Aiko's gender prompted Japan's top court bureaucrat to call publicly for the royal couple to have a second child and later for Akishino and his wife to consider a third, comments that undoubtedly contributed to Masako's unhappiness.
The crown princess's woes have garnered a good deal of sympathy, especially from women who can relate to her effort to preserve her identity and pursue a career after marriage.
"I think the majority of ordinary people - their hearts go out to her," said Yuko Kawanishi, a sociologist at Tokyo Gakugei University. "She is a person who seemed to have everything and now is in the middle of a tragedy."
Few among the public support the notion that only a male should ascend the throne. Media surveys show that about 80 percent favour revising the 1947 succession law.
Conservatives, however, cite several reasons for Japan to buck the global trend toward royal gender equality.
Topping the list is the argument that while Japan has had eight reigning empresses, none of those passed the throne to her own child. Instead, traditionalists believe, the imperial lineage stretches back through 2 600 years of patriarchal succession.
"It's not simply that Japan is more male chauvinistic than other countries," Portland State's Ruoff said.
"It probably is, but that's not all there is to it. It's because a substantial bunch of hard-core supporters of the throne believe a reigning empress is the end of history," he added.
Conservatives also worry that an empress-to-be would have trouble finding a spouse because suitable men would be unwilling to accept the subservient position of royal consort.
Whatever the logic, the reality is that there are simply no royal males in Aiko's generation.
That reality has forced politicians to ponder reform but many seem loathe to push too quickly, perhaps for fear of offending powerful support groups such as Shinto shrines.
While ideas such as reviving Japan's pre-war nobility to find a distantly related royal male to inherit have been floated, ultimately conservatives will likely have to bow to the times.
"There is not one single male among the emperor's grandchildren," Keio's Kusahara said.
"That means there is no other option."
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