It’s looking more and more likely that the Japanese Princess Aiko will one day become Empress. Her name, according to Wikipedia is;

Aiko, written with kanji character for “love” and “child”, refers to “a person who loves others.” The baby will also have a royal title. The princess will be called Princess Toshi (敬宮 toshi no miya) while she is young. That means “a person who respects others.” This formal title will be dropped if the princess marries.

Princess Aiko (as I’ll call her to make things easy for our western audience), has had quite a life already. Her mother is the Harvard educated Crown Princess Masako, whom Crown Prince Naruhito famously pursued, even after she had tried to avoid his attentions several times. She reportedly relented after he promised that he would always protect her. After Princess Masako married her prince, she left her professional life — not an easy decision for a woman who was fluent in 6 languages and had met world leaders like Bill Clinton. Pressure on Princess Masako to get pregnant was intense, and the country was happy when, at age 36, she gave birth to Princess Aiko. However, Japanse succession laws have dictated that a male must take the throne, and yet no male heir has been born to the Japanese royal family since 1965.

What to do. Princess Masako is now in her 40s and the pressure upon her to conceive again by the highly conservative Imperial Household Agency (and other pressures) led to her exhaustion and withdrawal from public life , and to a rare public excoriation by her husband of the Agency itself. When Princess Masako does come out in public, as she did this past summer for the Aichi Expo, news commentators examine every inch of her behavior for clues. When she got of the shinkansen, for example, commentators noted that Princess Masako turned to greet the platform greeters. This, apparently, was worth noting.

For the past few years, there has been discussion that succession laws should be changed to allow a woman to take the throne. A few die-hard protestors insist that a male should be found instead, but with fully 80 percent of the country backing Princess Aiko, and this latest move from the government, it looks like Japan may enter into a matriarchy. It wouldn’t be the first time — as recently as 1700 Japan had an Empress.