Smug
It is not “either a boy or a girl.”
Princess Kiko’s pregnancy appears to be neither accidental nor immaculate. All available intelligence indicates it was carefully planned. According to an article in Aera, about a year ago the princess visited a doctor whom she asked about having “another one.”
The crown prince’s comments from last year make more sense now.
Crown Prince Naruhito’s controversial comment two years ago that certain people were “denying” Crown Princess Masako’s “personality” obliquely referred to the pressure she was receiving to have another baby. Whatever it was she thought she was getting into when she agreed to marry the Crown Prince, it’s clear that she realized the only thing expected of her was to produce a male heir. (Interestingly, nobody wondered if the Crown Prince himself was under pressure. It takes two, you know.)
The matter is political.
Forty percent of Diet members and more than 50 percent of those who belong to the LDP are the sons and grandsons of Diet politicians, and thus beneficiaries of the male-succession mind-set that props up the emperor system. Some grandfathers, in fact, were involved in the desperate struggle at the end of World War II to make sure that the emperor system survived the surrender intact. To them, there was a lot more at stake than the national religion.
If little princess Aiko never becomes Empress, she might be better off.
They’re just spoiled bums living off the Japanese taxpayers.
February 20th, 2006 at 7:47 amI was actually trying to find out do Asians have blue eyes when I found this site. I’m still translating it, so I’ll leave a real comment when I figure out the meaning of each and every word. So this is just a hello from Croatia!
February 20th, 2006 at 8:08 amPerhaps the Japanese are unaware that it’s the father’s contribution to the process that determines if a baby is a boy or a girl. Mothers always contribute one of their two chromosomes (XX), and fathers one of their two (XY). I beleive the Brits had a similar misunderstanding roughly 500 years ago.
February 20th, 2006 at 11:13 amI was going to do something on this article myself, but Marie got there first.
I actually disagree with the author’s point in #3. He apparently has forgotten about former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, daughter of a prime minister, or MP Yuko Obuchi, daughter of another prime minister, or the record number of women who won election to the Diet in the election just last year.
He also seems to think that people always agree with their grandfather’s political philosophies.
But this is a Philop Brasor column, after all, so we can’t expect clarity of thought. In the same article, he calls Japan “a country that pretends to be a democracy”.
He’s OK when he sticks to the Aera article and the question of whether the pregnancy was engineered by the Imperial Palace.
It’s when he tries to add his own commentary that he sails off the edge of the earth yet again.
February 20th, 2006 at 12:20 pmIt’s weird that for some people, Kiko’s getting pregnant “deliberately” has some faint air of conspiracy. People outside royal families also put some thought into these things beforehand, you know. Not every princess gets knocked up accidentally in a one-off with their yoga instructor in the back seat of a car.
February 20th, 2006 at 2:02 pmAmpontan,
February 20th, 2006 at 5:17 pmCan you explain more about how or why Mr Brasor often sails off the edge of the Earth. He is a longtime resident of Japan, right? Does he not understand things there? Please explain more about his point of view. I have read his articles before in the Japan Times, but didn’t know much about him.
“He is a longtime resident of Japan, right? Does he not understand things there?”
Not very well. I don’t think length of residency is related to depth of understanding.
Take another look at the two points I made in the note. Ask yourself: Is Japan *really* not a democracy?
Then go to the onsite search function for previous posts about Brasor columns, particularly the one about Takeshima/Dokto.
February 20th, 2006 at 6:25 pmThanks. Will search and read earlier posts.
February 21st, 2006 at 12:55 amI wish I could offer an informed opinion, but I can only give my reaction:
You’re damned right she’d be better off! This twisted tragedy seems to be making no one happy. The Kunaicho comes off especially ugly in all this mess. Secret medical procedures, causing a successful woman to have a nervous breakdown. How do they get away with it?
The imperial institution absolutely boggles my mind. I wish I knew more about it.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:07 amCan members of the imperial family become commoners if they want?
February 21st, 2006 at 5:46 pm