# Japan has a new prince. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 6, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579 "2006-09-06T01:15:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/1 "2006-09-06T01:15:21Z")
Princess Kiko gave birth at 8:27am local time to a 2,500g boy, the first male born to the Imperial family in 41 years. [http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060906p2a00m0na002000c.html](http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060906p2a00m0na002000c.html) And that was the last anyone ever saw of Princess Masako. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/2 "2006-09-06T01:22:24Z")
Well, at least the pressure’s off the poor dear… Banzai to the Royal Family for being able to avoid dealing with the problem for another 75 years! ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/3 "2006-09-06T01:55:29Z")
Yep, the government was thiiiis close to voting on a bill to change the succession law, with about 80% of the population supporting it. Then Princess Kiko’s pregnancy was announced, and the whole matter was quietly dropped by the entire country. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/4 "2006-09-06T02:59:20Z")
Unfortuanately, now it looks like she’s going to become irrelevent, the press now has been starting to pick on Masako. It’s funny, I’ve seen support for female succession in almost everyone I know (granted I don’t hang out with the right-wingers) but those extreme vocal concervatives managed to stop the silent majority. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/5 "2006-09-06T03:35:53Z")
Yeah, that’s what I heard. It’s probably mid-morning in Tokyo now, or so, are people excited or does nobody except the oldest generation really care anymore? ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/6 "2006-09-06T03:44:25Z")
Still, it’s sad that you’ve gotta be born with a penis to be of value in that situation. I think it would have been better if those laws changing succession had passed instead of waiting for a boy to happen to be born. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/7 "2006-09-06T04:20:26Z")
Great congratulations to the family and the nation of Japan on the birth of the new baby. I’m sure everyone wishes the parents, the newborn boy, and the rest of them well. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/8 "2006-09-06T04:38:28Z")
That’s good news. At least the pressure’s off a bit and perhaps any changes can be discussed in a less pressured atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/9 "2006-09-06T05:02:52Z")
[QUOTE=Mehitabel] Yeah, that’s what I heard. It’s probably mid-morning in Tokyo now, or so, are people excited or does nobody except the oldest generation really care anymore? [/QUOTE] I dunno. It was being reported rather matter-of-factly on the public news channel this morning, and my mother-in-law seemed more interested in comparing the prince’s vital stats with our son’s. Around the office and on the radio right now, the excitement is pretty much non-existent. There are plenty of folks (young ones, even) in Japan who are addicted to Royal-watching, though, and I’m sure they’re plenty excited. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/10 "2006-09-06T09:42:16Z")
Oh, I’m sure it will be on all the morning “Wide” shows tomorrow. Remind me to turn the damn shows off in the morning, since the fawning over the imperial family turns my stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/11 "2006-09-06T09:54:03Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] It’s funny, I’ve seen support for (insert open-minded point of view here) in almost everyone I know but those extreme vocal narrow minded jerks managed to stop the silent majority. [/QUOTE] Edits by me, to create a sentence that can be applied to an absurd amount of political issues. I didn’t even know there was a Princess Kiko. Guess she’ll be all over the hairdresser magazines in the next months. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/12 "2006-09-06T12:42:09Z")
Aw… so Aiko doesn’t get to be empress? What a ripoff! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/13 "2006-09-06T17:12:00Z")
The succesion is now secured, _unless_ little Prince _X_ gets into a car accident or something. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/14 "2006-09-06T22:41:27Z")
Royal family of Japan? Laws of succession? I had always assumed that since we wrote their constitution, there was no more official succession and that we had broken them of monarchy. I had no idea they still had a royal family; I’ve never heard about them in the news before. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/15 "2006-09-07T00:16:40Z")
[QUOTE=riker1384] Royal family of Japan? Laws of succession? I had always assumed that since we wrote their constitution, there was no more official succession and that we had broken them of monarchy. I had no idea they still had a royal family; I’ve never heard about them in the news before. [/QUOTE] Obviously you did not notice the 1989 succession, then. But not touching one hair on the Tenno’s head was our side of the deal; they knew we could have hanged, exiled or simply thrown the Imperial Household out on the street, and in return for not doing _that_ they allowed the “breaking” of the old system to be done to them while pretending to not mind, all the while squarely and firmly under MacArthur’s thumb – in a sort of “keep your friends close and your enemies even closer” deal. The “Monarchy” **was** broken. The Emperor was stripped of all official authority as head of state (even the perfunctory rubberstamping most Western monarchs do), made to renounce all divine attributes, and left officially just a sort of spiritual/moral figurehead whose sole function is being there and exemplifying proper values. “State Shinto” was disestablished. The government we installed passed this current Law of Succession, rejecting any form of matrilinearity or adoption, and stating that princesses who marry outside Japanese nobility become commoners – and then abolished all noble houses or “peerages” but those of the Emperor and his brothers. Thing is, the western-style “Monarchy” only dated from the later 19th Century. The emperor as a near-irrelevant virtual-prisoner spiritual figurehead who just played a role of ritual legitimacy while others were really in charge WAS the norm during much of pre-Meiji Japanese history. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/16 "2006-09-07T00:31:43Z")
[QUOTE=riker1384] I had no idea they still had a royal family; I’ve never heard about them in the news before. [/QUOTE] There have been lots of stories over the past few years about the succession issue / the lack of male heirs / the supposed “breakdown” of the Crown Princess at her inability to bear a son etc. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/17 "2006-09-07T01:22:21Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] There have been lots of stories over the past few years about the succession issue / the lack of male heirs / the supposed “breakdown” of the Crown Princess at her inability to bear a son etc. [/QUOTE] Why the quote for “breakdown”? Do you know something more about this? And yes, the morning “Wide” shows this morning were all about the birth, and how wonderful of the father, Prince Akishino is. They show all the photo ops he’s had with his family for the last 14 years. The funny thing is, no one gave a shit about him or his wife or their wonderful parenting abilites while they had these worthless daughters who would wither away and become commoners. Now he’s the father of the Future of Japan, we can love him. Really pisses me off. There may be a pitting in this. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/18 "2006-09-07T01:29:33Z")
[QUOTE=TokyoPlayer] Why the quote for “breakdown”? Do you know something more about this? [/QUOTE] No, not at all, and I certainly wasn’t intending to disparage her. I simply meant that I wouldn’t trust a tabloid newspaper to be giving precise medical diagnoses. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/19 "2006-09-07T05:35:29Z")
Her depression is well-known and widely discussed in reputable Japanese and [Western media](http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/masako/index.html). It’s not just something that the tabloids have dreamed up. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579/20 "2006-09-07T06:17:31Z")
Here’s a picture of [Masako, her husband and her (now passed for the throne) 5-year old daughter.](http://www.elsemanaldigital.com/arts/55474.asp?tt=) at a recent visit to the Netherlands. The tall blond lady behind her is Maxima, married to the Dutch Royal Heir Alexander, and her little blond infant daughter. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-has-a-new-prince/371579.md?page=2)