Wonderful news for Japan. The Crown Princess Masako of Japan gave birth to a girl Saturday afternoon. Emperor Akihito gets to pick the name! This is gigantic news for the people of Japan. I offer my humble congratulations.
It will be interesting to see what happens now... This baby is in line for the throne, sort of... It's that, or the end of a dynasty -- a law passed in 1889 limits the position of emperor to male royalty. There is a great article from Atlantic Monthly on-line here which goes into some of the details of Japanese royal society. (via Metafilter.)
This, from the Japan Times article:
The baby is the third grandchild for the Emperor and the Empress. Prince Akishino, the younger brother of the Crown Prince, and his wife, Princess Kiko, have two daughters -- 10-year-old Mako and 6-year-old Kako.
... Currently, Prince Akishino is second in line to the throne. Further down the line, the other princes -- the Emperor's uncle, his younger brother and three cousins -- are all older than the Crown Prince and Prince Akishino.
With the birth of the girl to the Crown Princess, every child born to the Imperial family since the birth of Prince Akishino in 1965 has been a girl -- from Princess Nori, 32, the only daughter of the Emperor and Empress, to Prince Akishino's daughters.
Posted at 11:22 AM in category Old (this category is huge!)Recent Photographs
Recent Entries
my most perfect day, for future reference.Search the know
