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On 6th September, Princess Kiko, wife of Prince Akishino, the second son of present emperor Akihito gave birth to a baby boy. He is the first prince to be born in the Imperial family in almost 41 years, after his father Akishino.
There is lot of debate going on in Japan over whom to succeed the throne after the present crown Prince Naruhito. Koizumi was briefly active to revise a Imperial law allowing women to succeed the throne, by which Princess Aiko will succeed his father Naruhito, as the first female successor after many decades. He constitued a council which finally gave the nod for the revision after a series of studies. But just before Koizumi could bring the law revision in the Parliament, Aiko got pregnant at the age of 39. Koizumi was pressurised by the right wing politicians to abandon the imperial law revision. Shinzo Abe who is almost certain to succeed Koizumi as the next Japanese Premier has already thrown the bill to the dust bin. The right wing hardliners does not support a woman to succeed the throne stating that will bring impurity into the royal family blood, if they marry either a commoner or a foreigner.
Though, it is upto the Japanese people to decide on their royal family's fate, one thing that annoys me is that Women are not given equal rights and opportunities even in a developed nation like Japan.
Same is the case in the United States. So many years after independance, a woman is yet to be elected as a president. I am little happy that being a third world country, India has seen a Premier 35 years ago in the name of Indira Gandhi and has several past and present women Chief Ministers
Though 56% percent of the interviewees in a recent survey by NHK in Japan favoured the revision of the law, most politicians and right wing activities does not favour it. This is one more proof that Men are superior by birth, even now, in certain parts of the world in the 21st century.
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