Princess Kiko is Pregnant for the 3rd time

[SyberiaWinx]

Perhaps, like so many parents at that age, they see their once little girls growing up and want to relive having a little baby to raise. And since the IHA also want another baby-a boy-why not give it a go.

Either way, best of wishes to Princess Kiko and the baby. Let's hope they both remain healthy.

[foiegrass]

aye. 6th sept. my birthday. and we'll know whether its a girl or a boy. how exciting! i suppose. futhermore, kiko's birthday is on the 11th.

[monica17]

Originally Posted by btsnyder

I always found the timing of this pregnancy interesting, a full 12 years after the birth of their last child. Surely someone in the Imperial Household must have sat the couple down and "suggested" that they have another child, since it was unlikely that Masako was able to have another, considering her fragile mental state and advancing age. Or, I wonder if it was a concious decision on the part of Akishino and Kiko, their chance to produce an heir for Japan and be parents of the next emperor. What are everyone's thoughts?

Well, the (past?) Grand Steward of the IHA has publicly "demanded" that both couples try for a 2nd and 3rd child in 2002 and 2003 or 2004. Akihito was also said to be fretting about the succession for about a decade now. It was also said that he gave his blessing for this 4th grandchild. And those conservatives have been vehemently against a female tenno (including some male members of the Imperial Family). So it's really no surprise, IMHO, that this pregnancy came about.

I do like this family a lot and I'm very happy that they will have an addition to their family. I will be very surprised if it's not a baby boy. I can cry to the highest heavens for Aiko's lost chance to become a female tenno but it's nothing I can change or influence. I just wish the mother and baby well. And hopefully that this path is better for all, especially for Aiko; and for the more senior members of the family to reconcile and try to forge a better future for Japan's monarchy in the 21st century.

[Jackswife]

Gosh, that was a fast-seeming nine months! Seems like just last week when the announcement was made about Kiko and the new little one on the way. Thanks for the update and I will be sure to keep an eye out for the announcement on Wednesday.

[makolove]

wow.
What a coincidence.
This coming Sept.6 is going to be my 18th birthday :)

[crm2317]

Originally Posted by makolove

wow.
What a coincidence.
This coming Sept.6 is going to be my 18th birthday :)

Ooo thats exactly one week after i turned 18 myself on the 30th august

[Eliza]

6th Sept - the day is drawing closer, praying that both mother have a safe and smooth deliver and baby comes into this world healthy and well.

btw, Happy birthday to both Makolove and crm2317

[corazon]

I sure the baby is a boy, but I can't wain for the news!

[zarat]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...cle1359799.ece

I know that in these days an endless quantity of information regarding princess Kiko will "flood" us but still I really advice to read article from Independent (especially it's second part).
The author describes how the journalists are treaten by officials from IHA. For instance one journalist was told to not walk in the centre of hallway to meeting room becuase "only his majesty can walk in the centre"....

[mandyy]

Japanese shares get 'baby bounce'
Shares in Japanese firms which make baby products have risen sharply, anticipating an imminent royal birth...........
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5311784.stm

[Quality Blonde]

Wow interesting article posted above - especially:

In significant ways, the Japanese royals, by design, still barely inhabit the earthly realm: they have no surname, no personal wealth or possessions, no passports and few, if any, legal rights. Can they divorce? Can they abdicate? Can they sue? Nobody really knows. Says Akira Asada of Kyoto University: "The royals aren't permitted to live like normal human beings. They are forced to live in a miserable situation, stripped of many basic human rights."

Excuse me for not having read more than the last few pages of this thread - fascinating as it is. So I don't doubt this has been mentioned...

The thing that strikes me most forcefully is the sheer irony in this situation (and many the same in royal and non-royal families over the years) is the fact that it is the men who are putting pressure on these women to conceive a boy.............when it is actually dependent on the MAN to determine the sex of the child

Henry the VIII is just one who comes to mind - but perhaps he can be forgiven due to ignorance. Whereas the modern Prince....

Another thought/question. Since it is now possible to determine the sex of an embryo before it is implanted in IVF procedures - is it likely that this is what may have occured? Would there have been pressure I wonder for Princess Kiko to undergo this?

The reason I assume the need for IVF is the age of these ladies. It is a well studied fact that fertility greatly declines after 35 years of age.

[Ariel]

Infertility is a problem that get worst with age but there are many women giving birth after their forties, so having a baby at Kiko's age is nothing new. Im pretty sure it is a boy, i dont think she will carry another pregnancy in this moment when the government started to think about changing the succession law if it was not becuase of the certainty of a boy-.

[Toledo]

Originally Posted by Quality Blonde

Wow interesting article posted above....

....The thing that strikes me most forcefully is the sheer irony in this situation (and many the same in royal and non-royal families over the years) is the fact that it is the men who are putting pressure on these women to conceive a boy.............when it is actually dependent on the MAN to determine the sex of the child

Henry the VIII is just one who comes to mind - but perhaps he can be forgiven due to ignorance. Whereas the modern Prince....

Another thought/question. Since it is now possible to determine the sex of an embryo before it is implanted in IVF procedures - is it likely that this is what may have occured? Would there have been pressure I wonder for Princess Kiko to undergo this?

The reason I assume the need for IVF is the age of these ladies. It is a well studied fact that fertility greatly declines after 35 years of age.

I agree on your opinion about that article 100%. It explains how the Japanese royals are viewed not just as monarchical figures but as a tie to the divine origins of their very own nation. And that sometimes is difficult to accept in other nations that don't share the religion and question the use of 'divine' beginings of other people.

If someone questioned the way the Popes, Bishops, Priests, Pastors, Rabbis, Ayatollahs, Mullahs and Dalai Lamas, etc are revered, many will find questioning their social and religious authority offensive. But in Japan, like in many non-christian/muslim/jewish, etc places, religion goes hand in hand with monarchy because the royal or imperial family represent that bond between heaven and earth in ways some of us might fail to understand. Unless we try to see it in the way our respective religious leaders are shown the same respect.

That article sumarizes it very well. It's more about faith and monarchy than just about monarchy. The bridge between Kiko's child and Masako's daugther is bigger than what I thought not only because religion is deeply involved but also because, as I pointed out before, the imposed post WWII constitution really messed things up in their political and social structure.
What we are seen these days is like a snowball rolling down from 1947 getting bigger and bigger until it became impossible to stop. Interesting thing is that the Thai royals are also revered as both symbols of the country and it's religion, yet they have come to a middle term were the royals have become more approchable and also modern, adapting with the changes since the 1940's along with the rest of us.

About a boy: Dynasty, Japan-style
quotes from the above link (it's a long article)

...This is no ordinary baby, but one born into controversy and with the weight of the world's oldest hereditary institution on its shoulders. If it is a boy, he will one day head a dynasty that claims to trace its roots back to before the Romans stepped on British soil. If it is a girl, she will come into the world to the sound of a collective sigh of disappointment. Not an easy start in life....

Everyone knows this is a soufflé that cannot rise twice. At almost 40, and after a complicated pregnancy that put her in Aiiku Hospital on 15 August to prevent possible premature bleeding, Princess Kiko will almost certainly not have another child. She has two daughters. Her sister-in-law Masako, who is 43 this year, has been so worn down by her transition from diplomat to member of the cloistered imperial household that rumors of depression, divorce and worse abound.

In a world struggling to deal with melting polar ice caps and the disintegration of the Middle East, the problems of Tokyo's imperial household might seem small. But traditionalists believe the family boasts an unbroken bloodline that stretches back more than 125 generations and 2,000 years, and which has survived war, revolution and Japan's transition to a modern secular democracy. Some even cling to the myth that Emperor Akihito is a direct descendent of the sun goddess Amaterasu, the most important Shinto deity and "the father" of the "pure" Japanese race.

..."It looked as though Masako's daughter would be the first reigning empress in modern Japanese history and Masako would have been the one who shaped her. And now she doesn't even get to do that," says Ken Ruoff, the author of The People's Emperor. "So she may well ask herself: what is the purpose of all this? Why have I made all these sacrifices? People who know say this is a really dicey situation and that she is really unhappy."

...One publication says that a boy will boost the economy to the tune of more than $200m (£105m); the editors didn't bother to calculate the economic dividend from a girl....

Not everyone will be unhappy with a girl...It would be important if the national symbol could be a woman, and in fact it is ridiculous that it isn't," says Mr Ruoff. "An empress would also make it difficult for the patriarchal far right to hold onto their chauvinism."

[Alexandria]

Originally Posted by zarat

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...cle1359799.ece

Interesting article zarat.

The one thing that really struck me was that even though many people want this baby to be a boy for various reasons, the article nicely points out how difficult this little boy's life will be. We're all so focused on the now: Will it be a boy or a girl? And if it's a girl, what happens to Aiko, etc. that nobody is thinking about what life for this little boy might be like in 20 or 30 years from now.

What if his wife endures the same problems that Masako has and the problems experienced by the imperial family now are only rehashed two or three decades down the line?

And it made me sad when I read this one paragraph:

That secrecy means that when the fuss has died down next week, the baby will be whisked away, to be wheeled out on official photo opportunities. The child's life will move in tandem with the ancient rhythms of tradition, overseen by the same IHA officials who have made life miserable for its aunt.

It made me think that this little boy will only be a show piece for the imperial family and that he could grow up to be just as miserable and sad and depressed as Masako is now. What kind of a life is that for a child?

Ultimately I feel bad for everyone involved because as the article clearly illustrates, there aren't any good or easy options. But really, I feel bad for Masako because she could've done some amazing things and we could easily be writing about the great work she is doing like the kind of praise we grant Maxima for her work with microcredit, and instead, we are talking about how gilded her life has become.

[Elspeth]

Another thought/question. Since it is now possible to determine the sex of an embryo before it is implanted in IVF procedures - is it likely that this is what may have occured? Would there have been pressure I wonder for Princess Kiko to undergo this?

Since there are reports that people from the IHA have been putting pressure on Masako and Kiko to have another child, obviously because a boy is needed rather than because the IHA happens to like children in general, I'd be very surprised if they hadn't used medical technology to the fullest possible extent to ensure that a boy is what they get. Whether that involves pre-implantation gender selection, or any other technique or combination of techniques that result in a male, it makes no sense for the outcome of this pregnancy to be left to chance.

In the very highly unlikely situation that a girl is born or the boy isn't healthy or something, I wonder how much pressure will be put on the Crown Prince to divorce his wife and marry someone younger.

[Toledo]

I have this bad feeling that Princess Kiko became pregnant (as in she was probably ordered to become pregnant) only when they failed to get Princess Masako to give it another try using technology...or maybe she did and the outcome explains the depression she had all these years. And also it would explain why Kiko became the next in-line to be forced into a dangerous pregnancy.

Both women are placed against each other for the sake of a male heir. One life mirrors the other woman's life making both the victims of a situation they did not expect when they married their princes.

[wlee]

Japan’s princesses find different fates

By Hiroshi Hiyama

TOKYO: Both are commoners who married into the world’s oldest monarchy. But while former career woman Crown Princess Masako struggles to cope, housewife Kiko seems to relish the chance to be an emperor’s mother....

From the Manila Times, Sep 5, 06,

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/...60905opi7.html

[Eliza]

Tomorrow is the intended date of birth.....my prayers go out to both mommy and baby for a smooth and safe delivery. And my heart goes out to both CP Masako and Pss Kiko.

The news article above... "housewife Kiko seems to relish..." really...who can a woman possible "relish" such a situation???!!!