Accidental Blogger

I will be leaving for a short trip to Japan tomorrow – a little more than a week. I am eagerly looking forward to my visit . I have been to Japan before and fondly remember some incredibly enjoyable experiences there.  I will therefore not be blogging for all of next week and perhaps not until the middle of the following one. Unless one or more of the guest bloggers find time to post (they are all busy people), Accidental Blogger will remain frozen for a while. Hopefully, I will have some photos to put up here upon my return. We’ll see.

A few months prior to my last visit to Japan, Princess Masako, the wife of the current Crown Prince, Naruhito, had given birth to a daughter after eight years of marriage and all of Japan was agog with the news of a much awaited heir to the ornamental but beloved royal family.  I quizzed my Japanese friends about their feelings in case a female royal were to assume the exalted imperial role.  Most of my friends were open to the possibility that the uninterrupted male royal line, due largely to the co-operation of concubines, might at last be broken. (Except for a handful of "custodian" female monarchs who warmed the throne until a suitable male could be found, Japan has not had an "official" female empress in its history.) Conservative right wing Japanese groups were angry and aghast at the prospect.  The Japanese parliament took note and braced for a possible female accession to the imperial seat. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizume recently called for a parliamentary session to debate the issue of changing the centuries old male dominated tradition.  That debate was interrupted and put on hold (although not yet abandoned) when Princess Kiko, the wife of Naruhioto’s younger brother became pregnant, once again raising hopes of a royal male heir.

Just in time for my upcoming visit, Princess Kiko has given birth to a boy and a male emperor on Japan’s ancient Chrysanthemum throne is now assured for the foreseeable future. The traditionalists as well as most other Japanese are overjoyed.  Apart from the fact that an old fashioned, ceremonial royal family seems oddly out of place in the shiny modern nation of Japan, the celebration surrounding the birth of the little prince also strikes me as a bit of an anachronism in the 21st century. Particularly because there were already three little princesses waiting in the wings who now have been deemed unfit to wear the Japanese imperial crown. But Japanese society is a curious study in ultra modernity and entrenched tradition, existing in seamless harmony. I am looking forward to more interesting conversations with my Japanese friends in the coming days.

TOKYO – With shouts of “Banzai!,” Japanese celebrated the birth Wednesday of the imperial family’s first male heir since the 1960s, a development that squelched hopes of reform to allow women on the throne.

Princess Kiko, wife of Prince Akishino, gave birth to a boy by Caesarean section at a Tokyo hospital. The boy, who will be named Tuesday, is Emperor Akihito’s first grandson and is third in the line to the throne, behind brothers Crown Prince Naruhito and Akishino.

The news was cheered by many Japanese, who maintain an enduring respect for the imperial family more than 60 years after Emperor Hirohito renounced his status as a divinity at the end of World War II.

“Not only the members of the imperial family, but all the people of Japan must have felt happy,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. “We’re hoping for the boy’s healthy growth.”

Succession crunch ends, for a while
The arrival of a prince — the first since Akishino’s birth in 1965 — ended for now a succession crunch in the coming generation of the royal family, which traces its roots back 1,500 years. Until Wednesday, Akishino and Naruhito had three daughters between them, but no sons.

Royal watchers warned that with only one male heir in the family, the throne could face another crisis if he and his eventual wife don’t produce a son.

“The imperial family has escaped the succession crisis, but only for the moment,” said Koichi Yokota, a professor in constitutional law at Ryutsu Keizai University in Ibaraki. “The family still has only one male successor in the youngest generation, and the system is far from stable.”