デイリー・テレグラフ社説「女性天皇が即位する」

雅子さまの「苦境」作用 女性天皇容認で英紙社説
2005/10/26 12:23

　【ロンドン２６日共同】２６日付の英紙デーリー・テレグラフは、小泉純一郎首相の私的諮問機関が女系・女性天皇を容認する方向を打ち出したことについて、日本が皇室の継続に現実的な対応を取ったとする一方、容認には皇太子妃雅子さまの「苦境」が大きく作用したと指摘する社説を掲載した。

　社説は「ハーバード大とオックスフォード大で教育を受け」数カ国語に堪能な元外交官の雅子さまが、結婚後は男子出産への強い期待を受けたこともあって体調を崩されたと指摘。皇太子夫妻の一人娘である愛子さまを皇位継承者に加える今回の決定は、才能ある皇太子妃が体調を崩してしまった悲劇に対し、国民の同情が集まった結果だと分析している。



A reigning empress
(Filed: 26/10/2005)

The Japanese royal house is the oldest in the world, tracing its line back through 125 monarchs to Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. So the fact that a high-level panel is recommending changing the law of succession to allow a woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne is of considerable moment. Japan had eight empresses between the 6th and 8th centuries AD, but they were either widows or single, and were not succeeded by their own offspring. And since the Imperial House Law of 1889, only males have been able to become sovereign.

The reasons for the proposed change are part biological, part political. The last male to be born to the imperial family was Prince Akishino, younger brother of Crown Prince Naruhito, in 1965. Thus, unless the law is altered, Japan faces the prospect in the coming decades of the imperial line at last being broken. One way round this would be to increase the pool of eligible male successors by reinstating the princely houses that in 1947 were severed from the imperial family in the wake of the Second World War. But that option does not command much public support.

Even less popular would be a reinstatement of the provision permitting the succession to pass to the offspring of imperial concubines. By contrast, opinion polls indicate that 80 per cent of Japanese would like to see the law changed to allow a woman to become empress and for the succession to pass to her children. It is not yet clear whether that would be on the basis of strict primogeniture, as, for example, in Sweden, or whether male offspring would take precedence, as in Britain.

Behind this preference for the abandonment of Salic law is the plight of Crown Princess Masako. Educated at Harvard and Oxford, and speaking English, French, Russian and German, she was a high-flying diplomat before marrying Naruhito in 1993. However, mental depression, believed to stem partly from the pressure to bear a son, has stifled her potential as an imperial consort.

She had a miscarriage in 1999 and gave birth to a daughter, Princess Aiko, in 2001. It is this three-year-old who, were the Diet to change the Imperial House Law in line with the panel's recommendations, would succeed her father. Such a step would be evidence of the Japanese people's pragmatic approach to tradition, and of their sympathy for a gifted young princess who has tragically become a recluse. For her sake and that of the extraordinary dynasty to which she belongs, we wish it godspeed through parliament.

Lack of male heir may put princess on Japan's throne
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo
(Filed: 26/10/2005)