Japan had many empresses. In total, throughout their extensive history, ten guardians have become the most powerful people in the Asian country. However, today, A woman cannot inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne. The Salic Law, which was created and has been in force since the end of World War II, only allows the position to be held by a “male of paternal lineage.” Because structural masculinity in Japan is ideally embodied within the imperial house. In the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy on the planet, gender equality does not exist, nor is it expected.
In this context, the character Aiko from Japan appears. The princess, in any other monarchy in the world, would be the heiress, But while the rest of the royal families adapt, with better or worse luck, to the modern era, in the Land of the Rising Sun it is quite the opposite. In the past hundred years, it has come as no surprise to anyone that its vast territory combines tremendous technological growth with the keen maintenance of its ancient traditions. The Reiwa era, which began in 2019 with the appointment of current Emperor Naruhito, appears to have chosen to follow the more classical and conservative path.
Although everything points to the possibility of a change at the end of the previous era, in the end the women of the royal family are still reviled regarding the line of succession. Or further: Upon marrying a commoner, they immediately lose their position within the Imperial House They have to leave and lose their title, although they are later compensated by the state – they are understood to be stripped of the right they were born with. One only has to remember the public contempt that Princess Mako, the current emperor’s niece, experienced for nearly three years after announcing her engagement to Kei Komuro, a classmate whose mother had run up debts to pay for her college, to understand what the women of the imperial family face.
And so we return to Japan’s Eiko, the Emperor’s first princess who, however, will never inherit the throne. On Monday, December 1, the young woman turns 24 years old He has just returned from his first official solo trip, to Laos. Her birth was surprising, as her mother Empress Masako gave birth to her when she was 37 and after suffering a spontaneous miscarriage – she became depressed due to criticism for not becoming pregnant, and later for not producing a male heir. Your name is used the same way Kanji That he stopped talking about “love” is also a departure from tradition, as his parents chose him, based on the writings of the philosopher Mencius, instead of the emperor.
Also known as Princess Toshi, Aiko had a difficult childhood, suffering from health problems that prevented her from attending school, as well as suffering from bullying, which was also influenced by the fact that she was not a male heir. However, he managed to graduate from the same Gakushuin School in Tokyo, and later enrolled in the university of the same name, Where he studied Japanese language and literature, In addition to perfecting his English, he attended the famous Eton College in the United Kingdom, where Princes William and Harry also studied.
The princess, who is a big fan of basketball and poetry and knows how to play the cello, has been working for the Japanese Red Cross since the beginning of 2024, as the Japanese Imperial House has an important historical relationship with the entity. In fact, his father, Emperor Naruhito, was an honorary vice president of the organization while he was still crown prince, a position today held by his wife Masako. However, its future remains largely unknown.
Although she represented values such as modernity and youth within the Imperial Household, she would be dispensed with without hesitation if she decided to marry someone outside one of the five branches of the Imperial Family. In fact, his role sparked controversy in Japan. Especially at the time Next in line, Fumihito, younger brother of the current Emperor Naruhito, He had only two daughters, Princesses Mako and Kako, with his wife, Princess Kiko. This was the challenge that prompted the formation of a council of experts in 2004 to discuss the future of the caliphate.
Solutions were practically in place, including the possibility of men of the imperial family adopting male children with royal blood from some branch, however distant, of their family tree, before a woman was allowed to become Empress of Japan again. But all that ended when Fumihito was born and Keiko became the current Crown Prince Hisahito in 2006, although this fact sparked a lot of rumors: since he was born twelve years after his sister who is directly superior to him, and moreover, There is not a single photo of his pregnant mother on those dates. There has been speculation that the prince is not his parents’ natural child, but rather came into the world through in vitro fertilization, adoption, or surrogacy.