Japanese media reported on the 23rd that Emperor Naruhito’s only daughter, Princess Aiko (22), will work at the Japanese Red Cross after graduating from college in March this year.
Aiko, who is graduating from the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Gakushuin University in Japan, will be working as a contract employee at the Japanese Red Cross starting in April. Her mother, Queen Masako, serves as honorary president of the Japanese Red Cross. The Imperial Household Agency of Japan said, “She wanted to work at the Red Cross because she wanted to increase her understanding of disaster relief activities and contribute to society.”
Emperor Naruhito and his wife, who married in 1993, were unable to have children for a long time after suffering a miscarriage. Although Aiko was born in 2001, Queen Masako suffered from depression afterward due to the pressure of giving birth to her son. In 2004, when he was crown prince, Emperor Naruhito made a sensational statement in Japanese society, saying, “There is a movement within the royal family to deny (Masako’s) career or personality.”
Aiko cannot become king according to the regulations (Japanese royal war crimes) that only allow men to inherit the throne. Currently, the first in line to the line of succession to the Emperor is Naruhito’s younger brother, Crown Prince Fumihito, and the second in line to the line of succession is Fumihito’s son, Hisahito. Hisahito is the only male descendant of the current Japanese royal family.
In the mid-2000s, there was a movement in Japanese politics to revise the regulations to allow women to inherit the throne. However, after Hisahito was born, the discussion went below the surface. Some say that the rules must be changed so that women can also inherit the throne, but conservatives, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, have strong resistance to this. In 2016, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women attempted to release a report calling for revision of the Japanese royal family regulations, claiming they discriminated against women, but deleted it due to strong protests from the Japanese government.
Article 1 of Japan’s constitution enacted during the Meiji Restoration stipulated that ‘Japan is ruled by the emperor.’ The supreme commander-in-chief of the Japanese army that entered the Korean Peninsula and invaded major Asian countries was also the Emperor of Japan. However, the current constitution (enacted in 1947) created under the leadership of the U.S. military government after the defeat in World War II completely stripped the king of his political authority. Accordingly, all of the Emperor’s actions required cabinet approval and he had no influence on state affairs.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.