Word: kiko
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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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...
...Kiko, the second princess, had produced only daughters as well, and the Japanese royal family seemed in real danger of dying out. With that in mind, last November 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...
EXPECTING. PRINCESS KIKO, 39, daughter-in-law of Japanese Emperor Akihito; her third child, news of which has quieted a heated national debate over a succession law as the public awaits word of the baby's gender; in Tokyo. With no male heirs in sight--both Kiko and Crown Princess Masako have so far given birth only to girls--many Japanese have been clamoring to revise the law to allow an empress and subsequently her children to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne, an event Japan has not witnessed in more than two centuries and officially banned...
...pass only to males with emperors on the father's side. But no boys have been born into the family since 1965. Crown Prince Naruhito, 45, and his wife Masako, 42, have had only one daughter, 4-year-old Aiko. Naruhito's brother, Prince Akishino, 40, and his wife, Kiko, 39, have two daughters. So Koizumi's panel suggested that succession should pass to the Emperor's firstborn, regardless of gender. Assuming that Naruhito succeeds his father, Emperor Akihito, Aiko would then be in line for the throne. The panel's plan seemed wildly popular and Koizumi vowed to introduce...
...Then came the shocker. On Feb. 7, news leaked that Princess Kiko was pregnant-11 years after she last gave birth. To many, the timing of the leak (just before the bill's submission) and that of the baby's conception (just after the panel's recommendation) seemed, well, like happy coincidences. Koizumi promptly tabled the bill. If the child is a boy, traditionalists will know that their prayers have been answered. And if it isn't? Then they'll just have to offer up some more...