Word: kiko
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When Japan's Princess Kiko gave birth to a 5-lb. 10-oz. baby boy on the morning of Sept. 6, ensuring the survival of the Japanese imperial line for at least another generation, the entire country appeared to twinkle with joy. Newspapers printed millions of special supplements, titans of industry issued congratulations, imperial enthusiasts gathered in front of the palace bearing flags and shouting "Banzai!" But Fumiko Wada, a housewife from Chiba, just outside Tokyo, wasn't celebrating. Wada is a dedicated fan of Crown Princess Masako, 42, and feels Kiko's miraculous pregnancy was just...
Japan is divided into opposing camps of royal watchers: Team Kiko and Team Masako. It is an unusual development. The imperial family, the oldest royal line in the world, is also the most tightly controlled. Its members aren't allowed to have last names, personal wealth, opinions or, for the most part, lives. But the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war over the future of the dynasty has made the royals unexpectedly human--and made Masako and Kiko living symbols of the intense pressure on Japanese women to be both modern and traditional...
...aspersions on her patriotism and her toughness, and not long after she gave birth to a daughter, Aiko, in December 2001, Masako sank into a depression. Now she has gone from an icon of style to an object of pity. "She's been crushed," says housewife Hiroko Nishiyama, a Kiko backer. "I feel sorry...
...Emperor's second son Akishino, seems born to be a Japanese princess. Earlier this year, as conservatives searched for a way to defeat legislation that would allow women to ascend to the throne--a move that had the support of some 80% of the Japanese public--it was Kiko, then 39, who conceived her miracle boy out of pure imperial duty, according to some of her fans. "The Emperor had been worried and depressed that the crown princess had no more children," says Nishiyama. So Kiko and Akishino "decided to have another child to lift the burden from the Emperor...
...liberals, though, had public support and demography on their side. With both princesses pushing middle age, where was a new prince going to come from? But then, as the debate heated up, the IHA made the surprise announcement iin February that 39-year-old Kiko was pregnant and was due to give birth in September, just when Koizumi was scheduled to step down. "I feel God really exists," said the conservative former justice minister Hiroshi Nakai on hearing the news. Though the Internet burned with speculation over the suspicious timing of Kiko's pregnancy, the news immediately put Koizumi...