Is it a male heir ? - Princess Kiko expecting child

Priness Kiko in the right turned out to be pregnant this time. Note that the husband is a younger brother of the next emperor.



It is very good news for us. Princess Kiko turned out to be pregnant, expecting a child in September 2006 although we don't know it's a boy or a girl.

As you see in the diagram above, all the recent children are girl, so the child is the only one who can ascend the throne without changing the law unless it's a girl again.
Please see yahoo news for detail.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060208/ap_on_re_mi_ea/japan_imperial_succession_6

I made FAQ for those who are not clear about the situation surrounding the news.

Q. Why can't one of the girls ascend the throne?
A. The law banning this was made only 100 years ago, but it used to be just their untold rule that only males can do and they continued to inherit male's breed 125 times withoug exception.

Q. I heard that several women became an empress.
A. Yes, they allowed some women to reign, but those empress didn't marry or give birth to children. The important fact is that the current emperor can trace 2000 years back to the first emperor via only males.

Q. What did Prime Minister Koizumi did ?
A. He is a thorough realist. He formed a committee consisting of liberalists and made them announce that women need to take the throne to make the breed secured. However, it called a huge dispute, and he dropped his supporting rate by 5% just because of this. I think he was a bit hasty, but someone has to proceed.

Q. Isn't it a discrimination if you don't allow women to be heir?
A. The system of emperor is a discrimination per se. How do you decide the emperor between siblings? Choosing big brother or big sister is also a discrimination, isn't it? Japan's democracy let it exist, so it's not big a deal as long as more than half support this system. First of all, if the breed can date back along female's breed, we are willing to support all the empresses. But they lost the family tree for female's side.

Q. What kind of education is taking place in Japan? Do they have any curriculum in school to make pupils respectful to the imperial family?
A. No way. This is regarded as being a violation of freedom of religion. It's just because old people are still crazy about the family and Japanese history cannot exclude precedent emperors. Asahi newspaper, Japanese communism party, Social Democratic Party, and Komeito seem to be eager to abolish it, though.

Q. What is the family name of them?
A. They don't have their family name. ALL Japanese names consist of a family name and a given name such as "Ono Yoko". But there's only one exception. The imperial family doesn't have their family name such as "Hirohito" or "Akihito", and that's still one of their mysteries.