TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s beloved Princess Aiko is often hailed as a pop star.
During a visit to Nagasaki with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, the sound of her name being shouted by well-wishers along the roads drowned out her parents’ cheers.
When she turns 24 on Monday, her supporters want to change Japan’s male succession law, which bars Aiko, the emperor’s only child, from becoming monarch.
In addition to frustration that discussion of succession rules has stalled, there is a sense of urgency. Japan’s declining monarchy is on the verge of extinction. Naruhito’s teenage grandson is the only eligible heir from the younger generation.
Experts say the ban on women should be lifted before the royal family disappears, but conservative lawmakers, including Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, oppose the change.
Aiko’s popularity increases the demand for a male monarch
Aiko has been gaining fans since she debuted as an adult royal in 2021, when she impressed audiences as smart, friendly, caring and funny.
Support for Aiko as the future monarch grew after her first official trip abroad to Laos in November, representing the emperor. During the six-day visit, she met with senior Laotian officials, visited cultural and historical sites and met with local people.
Earlier this year, Aiko accompanied her parents to Nagasaki and Okinawa. She followed the example set by her father, who places great importance on passing on the tragedy of World War II to younger generations.
“I’ve always supported Princess Aiko being crowned,” said Setsuko Matsuo, an 82-year-old atomic bomb survivor who came to Nagasaki’s peace park hours before Aiko and her parents were scheduled to arrive in the area. “I love everything about her, especially her smile … so comforting,” she told The Associated Press at the time.
Mari Maehira, a 58-year-old office worker who waited to cheer Aiko on in Nagasaki, said she had seen Aiko grow up and “now we want to see her become a future monarch.”
The princess’ popularity has led some to pressure lawmakers to change the law.
Cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi wrote comics advocating a legal change to allow Aiko to become monarch, which supporters continue to send to lawmakers to raise awareness and gain their support for the cause.
Others created YouTube channels and distributed leaflets to gain public attention to the issue.
Ikuko Yamazaki, 62, is using social media to advocate for the succession of the emperor’s first child, regardless of gender. She says she didn’t have Aiko as her successor and the insistence on male-only monarchs will cause the monarchy to die out.
“The succession system conveys the Japanese mentality on gender issues,” Yamazaki said. “I expect that having a female monarch would dramatically improve the status of women in Japan.”
Raising Aiko
The popular princess was born on December 1, 2001.
Shortly after giving birth to Aiko, her mother, Harvard-educated former diplomat Masako, developed a stress-induced mental illness, apparently due to criticism for not producing a male heir, from which she is still recovering.
Aiko was known as a bright child who, as a sumo fan, memorized the full names of the wrestlers.
However, she also faced difficulties: as an elementary school girl, she briefly missed classes due to bullying. As a teenager, she appeared extremely thin and missed classes for a month.
In 2024, Aiko graduated from Gakushuin University, where her father and many other members of the royal family studied. From then on, she participated in her official duties and palace rituals while also working at the Red Cross Society. On weekends, she likes to go for walks with her parents and play volleyball, tennis and badminton with the palace officials.
Japan’s monarchy is in a ‘critical state’
The Imperial House Act of 1947 only allows male-line succession and forces royal women who marry commoners to lose their royal status.
The rapidly dwindling Imperial Family has 16 members, down from 30 three decades ago. They are all adults.
Naruhito has only two potential younger male heirs, his 60-year-old younger brother, Crown Prince Akishino, and Akishino’s 19-year-old son, Prince Hisahito. Prince Hitachi, the younger brother of former Emperor Akihito and third in line to the throne, is 90 years old.
Akishino acknowledged the aging and declining royal population, “but nothing can be done under the current system.”
“I think all we can do at this point is reduce our official duties,” he told reporters ahead of his 60th birthday on Sunday.
Last year, the crown prince noted that royals are “human beings” whose lives are affected by the discussion, a nuanced but rare comment. He saw no change, though palace officials took his observation wholeheartedly, Akishino said Sunday.
Aiko also previously said that she was aware of the declining royal population, but could not comment on the system. “Under these circumstances, I hope to sincerely fulfill any official duties and help the emperor and empress as well as other members of the imperial family.”
The lack of male successors is a serious concern for the monarchy, which some historians say has lasted for 1,500 years. It is also a reflection of Japan’s wider problem of a rapidly aging and declining population.
“I think the situation is already critical,” said Hideya Kawanishi, a professor at Nagoya University and an expert on the monarchy. Its future depends entirely on the ability of Hisahito and his potential wife to produce a male offspring. “Who wants to marry him? If anyone does, she would be under enormous pressure to produce a male heir while performing official duties with superhuman ability.”
Hisahito must bear the burden and fate of the Imperial Family alone, former Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa said in an article in the Yomiuri newspaper this year. “The fundamental question is not whether to allow a male or female line of succession, but how to save the monarchy.”
Japan’s male-only succession system is relatively new
Japan has traditionally had male emperors, but there have also been eight female monarchs. The last was Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.
The male-only rule of succession became law in 1889 and was carried over into the Imperial Household Act of 1947 after the war.
Experts say the system had previously only worked with the help of concubines who, until about 100 years ago, produced half the emperors of the past.
The government proposed allowing a female monarch in 2005, but Hisahito’s birth allowed nationalists to drop the proposal.
The fruitless search for a male successor
In 2022, a largely conservative panel of experts called on the government to maintain the male line of succession, while allowing female members of the family to retain their royal status after marriage and continue their official duties. Conservatives have also proposed adopting male descendants from distant branches of the royal family to continue the male line, an idea seen as unrealistic.
The United Nations Committee on Women’s Rights in Geneva last year called on the Japanese government to allow a female emperor, saying it hindered gender equality in Japan.
Japan dismissed the report as “regrettable” and “inappropriate”, saying the imperial succession was a matter of fundamental national identity.
“Although it is not explicit, what they are saying is clearly in favor of male superiority. This is their ideal society,” Professor Kawanishi said.