Tokyo: Japan announced on Tuesday that the wife of the emperor's second son is pregnant, throwing a sudden question mark over controversial moves to end male-only succession in the world's oldest monarchy.
No boy has been born to the imperial family since 1965, spelling crisis for an imperial line that legend holds has been uninterrupted for more than 2,600 years.
Princess Kiko, 39, the wife of Prince Akishino, showed signs of a fetus during tests on Tuesday, Imperial Household Agency Grand Steward Shingo Haketa told a news conference on Tuesday evening.
She is six weeks pregnant, meaning she is due with her third child in late September or October, said public broadcaster NHK, which broke into afternoon broadcasts to announce the news.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had pledged to revise imperial law by June, but conservatives had stepped up a campaign against maternal succession in recent weeks.
Koizumi hinted he would press ahead with the historic changes, saying he already realized that the imperial family could have another boy.
"As I have stated, I am preparing to submit the bill to the current session of parliament, on the basis of the report" by an advisory panel on succession, Koizumi said.
Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako have had one child, four-year-old Princess Aiko, in nearly 13 years of marriage.
Masako, 42, a US-educated former career woman, is under intense pressure to bear a boy and makes few public appearances due to stress. Her plight has built public support to let her daughter sit eventually on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
"The pregnancy might allow people to calm down, without pressure or a sense of immediate urgency, and think about the system," said Isao Tokoro, an expert on royal history and professor at the Kyoto Sangyo University.
"If it is in fact a boy, the current system would still work," he said.
Grabbing an extra edition of a newspaper announcing the pregnancy, Yoshitaka Nakatani, a 69-year-old retiree who supports female succession, said Japan should now wait and watch.
"I hope she bears a baby boy," he said. "That way all this fuss over succession will abate."
The succession drama and Masako's ill health have led to rare public disagreements between members of the imperial family, who were revered as divine until World War II.
Naruhito took the unprecedented step in 2004 of accusing palace minders of suppressing his wife's personality. Akishino later took an equally unusual public swipe at his elder brother, saying he should have kept his concerns to himself.
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