Word: japanized
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...Japanese imperial line is believed to be the oldest royal family in the world, stretching back 2,000 years or more, but today it may have been saved by a brand-new baby boy. At 8:27 this morning, Tokyo time, Japan's Princess Kiko - the wife of Prince Akishino, Emperor Akihito's second son - gave birth to her first boy. Because Crown Princess Masako has borne only a single daughter, and because Japanese law allows only males to ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne, Kiko's 7.5 lb. baby will almost certainly be the future Emperor of Japan...
...Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi backed an initiative that would change Japanese law to allow a female - 4-year-old Princess Aiko - to become Empress. Most Japanese were in favor of the new law, thinking that the time had come when a woman could sit on the throne. (In fact, Japan has had several reigning empresses in the past, though none were allowed to pass the throne onto their children.) But the imperial family has long been a rallying point for Japanese conservatives, who consider the emperor the spiritual center of Japan, and they fought hard against the possibility...
...almost certainly dead, and Kiko's boy will cut ahead of Aiko in the line of succession . Still, the quick abandonment of the revision reminds Japanese women just how low the glass ceiling still remains in their country, and underscores how strong political conservatism has become in Japan...
...given Japan's demographic trends, the Chrysanthemum Throne may not be a boy's club much longer. It took the royal family 41 years to produce this prince, and when Aiko and her two royal cousins grow up and almost certainly marry commoners, they'll be snipped from the imperial family, leaving the boy the last royal. If the prince and his future wife have the Japanese average of 1.25 children, odds are just about even that they'll only produce princesses - and this time, there'll be no backup pregnancies to bail them...
...Tokyo. While the court acknowledged that Japanese soldiers had abducted and repeatedly raped the wom-en?some only 14 years old at the time?it dismissed their demands for a formal apology and $200,000 each in compensation, saying that the current government could not be held responsible for Japan's wartime military actions...