Succession and Membership Issues


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It's disturbing that this male-only business is going hand in hand with historical revisionism and resurgence of racist beliefs. This seems to be overall a rather unhealthy combination for a technologically advanced country in the 21st century that's trying to get along in the wider world.

It's also ironic that this precious male line is one going back to a female deity. Perhaps, being a deity, she had her own Y chromosome.:rolleyes:

There are some interesting articles about the Japanese Imperial family and its history here:

http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/040921.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/040928.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/041005.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/041012.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/041221.html
 
No happy ending yet in Japan's royal tale
................Palace officials have gone mum on the pregnancy and urged the media to stop making a fuss, amid speculation that the Crown Prince and his wife are also trying desperately for another child now.
And last Friday (March 10), the Government missed its deadline for putting the succession reform proposals to parliament.
But if no new princes come along, the question of who can be monarch will arise again..................
http://www.asianewsnet.net/level3_template4.php?l3sec=12&news_id=53599
 
I wish they would change. Aiko is so cute and I love how shy she was at disney world. Very cute.
 
The public protest to a female succeeding the thrones seems large but it is part of a very very large city.

I think there are always extremists in every large public debate. Looking back in Australian history to the 60s when the referendum was held to recognize the aboriginal population of this nation as citizens and people 91% approved in the only referrendum to ever get the nod (referrendums traditionally get the NO vote).

But when you think about it even in the 60s there were enough extremists (9% in a compulsory referrendum) that voted for these people to remain classified with the cattle of the country (where they were officially recorded up to that point) with no rights as citizens.

I think the situation in Japan is terrible on the CP couple and I hope the public are not swayed by this extreme minority.

Hotdog
 
Little Aiko must be bewildered at what's going on even if she doesn't understand it....or maybe she's being kept away from it. Either way, Empress or not (hopefully she will be!), she's kind of making her own mark in the Imperial history by causing waves. Either she's going to be Empress (and that's history) or she'll be the almost-made-Empress.

I don't understand why Japan even has royal born princesses if they can never achieve the throne and have to give up their title once they marry. I mean, what's the point?
 
soCal girl said:
Little Aiko must be bewildered at what's going on even if she doesn't understand it....or maybe she's being kept away from it. Either way, Empress or not (hopefully she will be!), she's kind of making her own mark in the Imperial history by causing waves. Either she's going to be Empress (and that's history) or she'll be the almost-made-Empress.

I don't understand why Japan even has royal born princesses if they can never achieve the throne and have to give up their title once they marry. I mean, what's the point?

Thinking about what I have heard so far of the Imperial household, IMHO Aiko can thank her fate on her knees if she need not become the Empress... Seems the "Royal" personages in Japan are nothing more than gaudily clad puppets for the household agency.

As to the question above: AFAIK princesses only have to give up their position if they marry commoners. There should be some men around aristocratic enough for them to marry but in the last decades the (few - 2?) princesses did not choose one of them. Does anyone know better?
 
Jo of Palatine said:
Thinking about what I have heard so far of the Imperial household, IMHO Aiko can thank her fate on her knees if she need not become the Empress... Seems the "Royal" personages in Japan are nothing more than gaudily clad puppets for the household agency.

As to the question above: AFAIK princesses only have to give up their position if they marry commoners. There should be some men around aristocratic enough for them to marry but in the last decades the (few - 2?) princesses did not choose one of them. Does anyone know better?

The nobles and aristocrats were abolished by the U.S. after WWII. So unless a Princess marries her first or second cousin, she has no choice but to marry a commoner.
 
The nobles and aristocrats may have been abolished by America, but they are still who they were. Their lines were not severed, their decendants were not murdered. :confused: :mad:
Maybe it's time Japan made a few decisions as to the way they run "their country" and "their culture", and formally reinstate "their heritage". I believe that there is a precedent for an Empress, and that a lot of attitudes there owe more to western influence post war than to tradition and today.
Whatever happens, God bless Princess Aiko, who regardless of the outcome is loved by her parents and the Japanese people. :)
 
The problem is they have no titles. They need the titles. 'Coz in Japan, the female MUST join the male's family.

So if the male is a commoner, she will become a commoner.
 
Elspeth said:
It's disturbing that this male-only business is going hand in hand with historical revisionism and resurgence of racist beliefs. This seems to be overall a rather unhealthy combination for a technologically advanced country in the 21st century that's trying to get along in the wider world.

It's also ironic that this precious male line is one going back to a female deity. Perhaps, being a deity, she had her own Y chromosome.:rolleyes:

There are some interesting articles about the Japanese Imperial family and its history here:

http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/040921.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/040928.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/041005.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/041012.html
http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/PandorasBox/041221.html

Thanks for the links. Just skimmed through one or two articles. The IHA are VERY sinister IMO - everyone should read those articles. I DO NOT envy CP Masako or the JRF at all. It seems to me they are birds trapped in a cage with no way of getting out.

As for the reform - the quicker it comes the better.
 
Okay

Since we're talking about how evil the IHA is.

Anyone else think Princess Takamatsu was poisoned by the IHA?

She was always defiant of the IHA and was the first Imperial Family Member to support a succession change to allow women once again to ascend the throne.
 
Well, she was rather old so it'd be hard to prove.

Now, if Masako fetches up face down in the river with her throat cut and "thus perish all enemies of the state" carved across her chest in Kanji, you may be onto something...
 
Hehe

Well her bio said she died of blood poisoning. So I kinda made me think of a sinister plot the IHA came up with. Hehe.
 
What a difference a chromosome makes! Part of the problem seems to be the lack of information allowed to come out of the stars of this problem, namely the Crown Prince & family. Seems their extremely regulated lives don't allow them to get on TV, King Juan Carlos' style, and fight for their daugther's rights.
Masako's situation brings to memory of a famous Olympic figureskater, the spectacular Midori Ito. First and for years the only woman who perform a triple axel in competition. When she became a Pro and the Winter games came up to be in Japan in 1998, she was pushed to go back and compete in Amateur ranks by pressure from the Japanesse Olympic comittee who used public pressure to 'make' her compete for Japan. The whole thing became a train wreck. She was such a mess she responded to the political pressure and the stress by becoming anorexic and in the height of the skating season, in 1997, she was rushed to a hospital and her career ended there. She was still allowed to light the Olympic flame in Nagano.

My point is that when I heard of Masako's stress related problems it was like seeing Midori Ito's life repeated all over again and by the same people, not the Imperial household but the politicians who seem to control it. Public pressure manipulated by political agencies wrecked two very public figures in Japan, their greatest figure skater and their Consort Crown Princess, and both with the same results on the ladies choosing to self destruct to that pressure.
 
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LDP panel drafts report on imperial succession from 'neutral ground'

(Kyodo) _ A study panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on imperial succession on Friday presented two different proposals in its draft report -- allowing female monarchs to ascend the imperial throne and preserving the current male-line succession.
.............The draft report shows that the panel discussions focused around two ideas -- preserving the current imperial succession which allows only male imperial heirs who have emperors on their fathers' side to ascend the throne, or allowing female monarchs and their descendants to reign..................The final draft is expected to be compiled by the end of the current Diet session on June 18 and to be submitted to LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Hidenao Nakagawa...........................
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060602/kyodo/d8hvsa700.html
 
Land of the rising daughter

For the first time in centuries a girl stands to inherit the Japanese throne. But a female succession would spell the end of the line for the monarchy. And the crisis has led to a power play behind the scenes, involving a troubled princess, a murdered diplomat and a surprising new contender for the crown.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2196861_1,00.html
 
Skydragon said:
Land of the rising daughter

For the first time in centuries a girl stands to inherit the Japanese throne. But a female succession would spell the end of the line for the monarchy. And the crisis has led to a power play behind the scenes, involving a troubled princess, a murdered diplomat and a surprising new contender for the crown.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2196861_1,00.html

Thanks for the link i bought the times today and read the article. According to that there seems to be alot more behind the sucession crises then we first thought.

I thought that this comment was very sinister (if it is true what the professor says).

“This was a deliberate strategy by the Imperial family,” said Professor Hatta Ikuhiko, Japan’s pre-eminent historian of the modern dynasty. “I have heard that Princess Akishino [Kiko] consulted doctors, and that new medical technology allows for a 70% probability of a boy. We expect rumours to that effect to be spread by the household this summer.”


Good to see PM out and about and smiling.
 
New medical technology allows for a virtual certainty of a boy, especially if the mother is prepared to undergo abortion of female foetuses until a male one is conceived (I'm not saying that Princess Kiko necessarily did that, but we don't know). There are also ways to test blastocysts for gender before implantation during IVF. I'd be highly surprised if she's carrying a girl. That Times article shows very well what's at stake: it isn't just the continuation of a male monarchy so that the imperial Y chromosome isn't lost, it's the whole issue of Japan's self image and position in Asia.

If the reactionary group, which appears to be well represented in the IHA, can marginalise the Crown Prince and especially his wife and daughter and push the apparently more malleable and conservative Akishinos into the limelight as parents of the future emperor, they have a good chance of working with conservative politicians to help reshape Japanese culture into something more nationalistic and belligerent. Apparently some of them haven't got over the defeat in WW2 as well as most Germans.
 
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Amina said:
Thanks for the link i bought the times today and read the article. According to that there seems to be alot more behind the sucession crises then we first thought.

Good to see PM out and about and smiling.

I find it so sad for Crown Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako and their daughter. They seem a genuine and loving family and I hope it all works out as they want. :)
 
Talk about living in the dark ages where oftentimes women were just pawns of larger political games.....how sinister and scary this is. I so wish Naruhito would just opt out of the whole charade, call it for what it is and get on with a happy and meaningful life with his wife and daughter. I will be very surprised is Kiko is not having a boy -- look at the way the whole Akishino family is being trotted out and given good PR these days -- the handwriting is on the wall.
 
My heart goes out to Masako and Naruhito. Whether there truly is a conspiracy or not, I can just imagine the kind of claustrophobia they have to live with. Aiko gets caught up in this mess not by her choice but by birth and if Kiko does have a son, then it can be a good thing for Aiko. Maybe she can live a more "saner" and "normal" life--a life that is not controlled by other people but determined by the choices she makes. Of course, i would still like to see Aiko be Empress someday; it's time IHA realizes they are not living in feudal Japan anymore.
 
That article has been discussed in the Princess Aiko thread too. Just goes to show how complicated things are over there, with politics being very heavily involved as well as family issues.
 
I think that Her Impreial Highness Princess Aiko will make a great Empress of Japan.
Regardless who is born first either male of female they should be allowed to assume the throne. Here are two examples of two European Royal Families that had the laws changed in order for females to assume the throne. In Sweden Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria will be the first female sovereign in almost 300 years. The Swedish Paliament decided thatt the first born, female or male should be granted the crown. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark was given the crown because her father His Royal Highness The late King Frederik IX had asked if the law could be changed to allow his daughter to assume the throne since he does not have any male heir to the Danish Throne.
I am sure that Her Imperial Highness Princess Aiko will be Empress of Japan in the future.
 
Ralph, did you read that article in Marengo's post? That suggested to me that it would be very unlikely that Aiko would become empress; I'm afraid that if she does, she'll be married off to some imperial descendent in order to produce a son from the imperial line, and as soon as he turns 18 there'll be pressure on her to do what her female predecessors did and abdicate in his favour.
 
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