Dump Masako! 'better for the crown prince to divorce'

[Taro Toporific]

[cstaylor]

The article is wrong about "changing the constitution", because male-only ascension is not in there. The Diet passed a law after WW2 that codified this, which means it would only take an act of the Diet to remove it from the books, not an amendment to the constitution.

Bad fact checker! No latte!

[Taro Toporific]

The article is wrong about "changing the constitution", because male-only ascension is not in there..

Good point!
That "changing the constitution" comment has been made so many time in the English press that I didn't blink an eye when I read that article even though I covered those parts of the Japanese Constitution several times in classes.

[Cubed]

The real issue is that a) Masako's all shagged out and b) He's firing blanks anyway.

My wife says the Crown Prince was rumoured to have had the onanistic habits of a primate in his youth. I haven't yet asked her how she knows this or what bearing it is perceived (conceived?) to have, but like so many things in life, past gains are no guarantee of future performance ...

[Taro Toporific]

Sad turn for a Japanese fairy tale?
The country's media have been agog with talk of a royal divorce
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Saturday 24 July 2004, 10:55 Makka Time, 7:55 GMT /Aljazeera
...For days now, the Japanese public have been talking about a report that Crown Princess Masako was considering a divorce from Naruhito that would free her of the strictures of the Imperial Household Agency.
The report, in the Shukan Shincho magazine, has revived the debate over the fate of the world's oldest hereditary monarchy, particulary as it coincides with more concern about the health of Emperor Akihito.
The word was used carefully, the magazine couching its article with "ifs" and "reportedlys," but it was the appearance of another word that has sent shockwaves through Japanese society.
The 70-year-old emperor, who underwent surgery for prostate cancer in January last year, recently began hormone treatment for the same condition....
Since marrying in 1993, the 40-year-old Masako has given birth to a daughter, Princess Aiko, but has not been seen in public for more than six months after being taken ill.
The speculation is that she has suffered some sort of nervous breakdown due to the pressure on her to produce a son and heir to Japan's men-only throne...in 1959 Empress Michiko married the Emperor and had a healthy son."Nearly half a century later, a dynasty that is, according to legend, descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu and the first emperor, Jinnu, who was born some 2600 years ago, is close to extinction.
"The Imperial Household Agency's task is to keep alive the myth of the royal family," says Inose, adding that they believe the crown princess' main job is to produce an heir....

"I don't think she will have a successor if
she is treated like a panda in a cage"
Toshiya Matsuzaki, writer on imperial family matters

"The emperor is not very well and he and the empress are not able to meet up with the prince and princess at all this summer because their courtiers have made up different schedules for them," he said.
"They are staying at different palaces at different times and that makes speaking to each other directly very difficult. There's a lack of communication."
....Since her marriage, she has been reined in and leaks from the agency indicate she was scolded for expressing her own opinions and even having the temerity to walk in front of the prince on one of their early official engagements.
In another telling tale, at an official dinner for visiting heads of state, she was seated between then-presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin and chatted in fluent English and Russian with both men.
In Lesley Downer's book The Tale of Masako, a royal-watcher commented that she was going to be in trouble for this indiscretion. "The royal family are not ambassadors. She doesn't need to be able to speak English, she has interpreters for that. Her job is to smile."

[American Oyaji]

When they got married, I felt sorry for her. I really did. Because I could see her life as it was and how it was gonna be.