JAPAN: Princess Masako, the wife of the heir to the Japanese throne, is so weighed down by depression and the demands of imperial life that she wants a divorce, the Japanese press has claimed, writes David McNeill in Tokyo
Opposition is growing against plans to allow her daughter, Princess Aiko, eventually to sit on the chrysanthemum throne.
Several weekly magazines say that after 13 unhappy years in the cloistered Imperial Palace, the Harvard-educated former diplomat has had enough and is looking for a way out of her marriage to Emperor Akihito's son, Crown Prince Naruhito.
The imperial household dismisses the speculation.
The princess has spent the last two years largely out of public sight and has been diagnosed with a mental disorder that many blame on her struggle to produce a male heir to an institution that claims to be 2,600 years old.
Masako (42) came under intense palace pressure to have another baby after giving birth to her only child, Princess Aiko, in 2001. Her subsequent illness has sparked a succession crisis and forced the government to begin revising the imperial house law, which currently prevents females from ascending the throne.
A government panel recently recommended changing the law and polls suggest that the public overwhelmingly supports the idea of an empress in the palace, which has not produced a boy since 1965. However, with just over a month left before the revision is sent to parliament, the plan has run into staunch opposition from conservatives, including leading members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Former prime minister Yoshio Mori and the head of the LDP's Diet affairs committee, Hiroyuki Hosada, both warned recently that the succession issue could "split the country" if handled badly. "Opposition is growing," Mr Hosada said. "The situation is precarious."
The Association of Shinto Shrines, which has traditionally harvested votes for the LDP in local districts, has warned that it will withdraw support from any deputy who votes for the Bill, a potentially serious threat to the power base of prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who supports a female emperor.
Opponents were galvanised on Wednesday by a central Tokyo rally of 1,000 people at which more than 170 Diet members signed a cross-party petition opposing the legislation.
At least one member of the imperial family has also told the government not to buck tradition.
The emperor's cousin, Prince Tomohito, believes the imperial bloodline, which traditionalists claim has endured for 125 generations of emperors, should not be diluted by "outsiders".
"There is no need to change the law," said the prince, who recommends reinstating the tradition of concubines or allowing members of the family expelled after the second World War to return.
The latest speculation about Princess Masako's state of mind has gathered pace as the debate on the succession issue heats up. "There are very few people who actually say the word 'divorce' but they think it," said Yagi Hidetsugu, an associate professor at Takasaki Keizai University.