Empress Masako (Japan)

[Door]

How fascinating! I'd love to see the pictures, Kafka.

[kafka]

My pleasure. Here are a few:

Many photos of Crown Princess Masako, along with the Imperial Family, at various recent events

The Emperor's Cousin (to the far right) who is demanding that they return to concubines as a way of getting male heirs, instead of changing the succession to let Aiko become Empress

Official Photo of the full Imperial Family now with CP Naruhito's brother, Akishino, and his family but no more Nori/Sayako

Another official Photo marking the New Year

The Emperor and Empress on the Emperor's 72nd birthday in the Imperial Palace gardens

Meanwhile, the Emperor's cousin (shown in a link above) has stepped up his fight to stop Aiko succeeding the throne. An article just came out today on the little twit's latest efforts. He's not mentioning concubines this time but his goal is still the same:
"Japanese prince steps up fight on female succession"

In case you're wondering, he's closely connected to the IHA in all this although, on the surface, the agency is pretending to be against imperial members speaking out on the succession problem. Funny, they didn't have any problems leaking out the Prince's private, internal memo on concubines to the press. (And they *had* to be behind it because it was circulated internally only to the IHA, no one else. Since the press would never go against the IHA on anything, they could only have gotten the story if the IHA deliberately leaked it as part of the conservatives' stepped-up campaign to derail female succession.) They also didn't have any problems publicly begging the CP's brother, Akishino, to get busy and procreate, in case he had a son. Two-faced bastards!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos.

[Deleted]

I like the practice of dressing the royal family ladies in white. Princess Masako looks lovely---white is her color.

All of Princess Masako's problems remind me of the living and fertility problems that some zoo animals suffer. All the stress of an unnatural environment and habitat causes the animals not to reproduce and creates obsessively destructive behavior---look at the pandas. The IHA is just one big unaccredited and concrete and steel bar zoo that would be picketed and shut down by PETA and the SPCA, if it were doing to the incarcerated animals what the IHA does to the royal family.

Free Princesses Masako and Aiko!

[kafka]

Masako got in big trouble with the IHA and they're using the incident to publicly raise "concerns" about how she's raising little Aiko and her "nurturing." You can read about it here.

IMO, something fishy is going on and it's not just because of the unnamed "palace sources" who were more than willing to blab, or how something like this would never come out unless the IHA deliberately leaked it. I'm talking about the underlying incident itself. As a professional diplomat, Masako is all too well aware about protocol and court etiquette. Even if her daughter were fretting, I don't think she would risk causing huge offense to both the IHA and the Emperor on such a big, formal occasion as his birthday banquet. I wonder who was really behind the "misunderstanding" and mix-up....

I truly worry that the IHA is setting the groundwork to take over complete control over Aiko. Beyond just her education that is. If the Imperial Succession is changed, I think they will limit Masako's involvement with her daughter to almost nothing at all. They think she is an unstable, loose cannon who cannot be trusted to meekly comply with the rules and the IHA's dictates. (They actually told that to Takahashi, the journalist referred to in this story, some years back and he wrote an article about how they view Masako and how they were pushing the CP to divorce her. The use of the same journalist in this case convinces me that this story was deliberately leaked because he is an IHA favorite who worked closely with them at the palace.)

In addition, imperial heirs are almost always brought up away from the parents, at a separate building and under the control of courtiers. While Empress Michiko managed to break that rule, Masako is in a different position. Plus, the IHA has already expressed concern over the allegedly greater difficulty of preparing a female for the throne, as compared to a male. They may well think that the situation will be made completely impossible if Masako --- with her inappropriately modern approach to things --- has the opportunity to infect and corrupt the future Empress. <eye roll>

I think a change in the Imperial succession might raise a whole new set of nightmares for mother and daughter....

[kafka]

Not sure if this counts as double posting or a bump for new events, but today dozens of lawmakers from the ruling party joined a 1,200+ rally against having a female Empress. One of their main concerns is that little Aiko will grow to marry "a blue-eyed foreigner"!!! WTF? Is this Shogun and the 1800s???

They're also think any son Aiko may have (from anyone, not just said Blue-Eyed Foreigner) won't be eligible for the throne because "his Y-chromosome [would come from] from a non-Imperial line father."

You can read their fucked up comments here

*slinking away now before my Japanese Imperial obsession embarasses me any further*

[Auroranorth]

According to Japanese myth, the Imperial Line is directly descended from the sun goddess Amateratsu, beginning the Japanese race. While this is recognized as legend, the perceived ethnic purity of the Emperor still resonates deeply with conservatives.

"If Princess Aiko becomes the reigning Empress, and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the Emperor," Hiranuma told about 40 lawmakers, academics and supporters at a Tokyo hall. "We should never let that happen."

Despite the overwhelming public support for the reform, traditionalists have stepped up their campaign to squash the move -- going so far as to propose bringing back concubines to breed male descendants as was done until early last century. Others argue the aristocracy banned after World War II should be reinstated as a way of broadening the pool of candidates for the throne.

Well, if I were the sun goddess, I would be doing some serious smiting here. "Concubines," forsooth. How stupid can you get? (Don't answer that, we already know about the Darwin Awards. Personally, I think that's what the traditionalists are going for.)

[kafka]

Japanese papers are claiming that Masako has had enough, especially after the increased opposition to Aiko as an Empress. They say she wants a divorce.

[kafka]

Can you imagine if one of the European royal houses (like the Danish one) had something analagous about the horror of a prince (like Joachim) marrying a "slanty-eyed foreigner"? There would, quite justifiably, have been an uproar from here to Timbuktu! But Japanese politicians say it and there isn't a squeak out of the press. Unbelievable.

[foxfair]

Japanese papers are claiming that Masako has had enough, especially after the increased opposition to Aiko as an Empress. They say she wants a divorce.

I've been reading about this. It's crazy. I am used to reading about the ruthlessness of royal families/ruling parties/emporers in history books, but it's always slightly surprising (I'm naive, I suppose) to see it being played out in real life. They've eaten that woman alive, spit her back up and are getting ready to throw her in the trash. It's unspeakably cruel. Some of the European press are speculating that the 'new' opposition is sort of a last-gasp of the conservatives, and I suppose we'll see, but I hope the law is changed.

Just like Moldy I read that line about blue-eyed foreigners and sort of mentally asked myself well, what if a male marries a blue-eyed foreigner and has kids? I guess only sperm matter, not those lowly eggs. Hey - racism AND sexism! All in one! Yay!

[kafka]

foxfair said:

I've been reading about this. It's crazy. I am used to reading about the ruthlessness of royal families/ruling parties/emporers in history books, but it's always slightly surprising (I'm naive, I suppose) to see it being played out in real life. They've eaten that woman alive, spit her back up and are getting ready to throw her in the trash. It's unspeakably cruel. Some of the European press are speculating that the 'new' opposition is sort of a last-gasp of the conservatives

I think that assessment is true in large part. But I see a lot more going on than just the conservatives being neurotic about chromosomes and eggs. And I'm far from certain that the Conservatives are so politically weak, as a whole, that they're having a last gasp about anything!!!

I'm not sure anyone will care about any of this but here goes. I see the larger picture to be about two dreams for Japan's future. Japan right now is torn between the ultraconservative revisionists who control the LDP (often nicknamed as The LEAST Democratic Party) and the more modern public.

IMO, the Empress/Successsion issue is a looking glass for much larger, more politically worrying questions facing Japan. The same people who oppose the Empress succession are those spearheading the return to a 1930s Japan. I'll repeat out an explanation which I gave to someone else and that's about Japan's current political situation.

Almost half (or more) of the Japanese PM's cabinet are sons of former war criminals, men from Tojo's govt. and/or from powerful political dynasties that are fully indoctrinated in the Old School of thought. These are men who believe every inch of their father's views, no matter how heinous. These are men who have dismissed and justified the Japanese war slaves, the Rape of Nanking and the scientific/chemical/torture experimentation on "subhumans" by the Japanese Army during WWII.

These are men who, like Koizumi, go in their PUBLIC capacity every few months to bow down to the war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine. Not just any war criminals but Class-A ones. The best parallel to describe it is: the German Chancellor going in a public capacity to bow and worship at Hitler, Goering, Himmler and Goebbels graves. It wouldn't happen in Germany but it is in Japan.

It gets even worse. The national anthem which was previously associated with nationalistic, militaristic aggression has come back after being banned for years. The Rising Sun flag associated with all of the 1930s/WWII butchery has been re-adopted after being banned for years. There is an outcry across all of Asia about Japan's new textbooks which completely rewrite the past. The lawsuits by victims of Japanese extermination and torture squads are being rejected without a word, while attacks by the ultranationalists are on the rise.

Meanwhile, the Bush govt. is supporting the Japanese govt's attempts to rewrite their constitution to let them have a huge standing army in Asia. Since the govt. in the US is so stretched out and overwhelmed, they want the Japanese to act as their sentinels in Asia. It helps the American military shortage to use the Japanese as substitutes but they don't realise what is really going on in Japan.

I've wrote my thesis on one aspect of Nazi Germany and I know enough about history (especially the totalitarian sort) to see the danger signs in Japan. Japan now is like Germany in 1930. It's on the threshold. And if either of the 2 people singled out to replace the current Japanese PM get into office, it will be a catastrophe. They both come from established political, powerhouse dynasties; they are both sons of powerful members of the militaristic Tojo/WW2 cabinet; and they are both such excessive ultranationalists that they make Atilla the Hun look leftist.

No-one is watching Japan because they are (legitimately) concerned about China and N. Korea. But the dismissal of Japan is a dangerous thing because of those other two countries and their past problems they have with a militaristic, aggressive Japan.

Japan is making every effort to bring back the symbols of the past, and they are using the current US situation to slide other things under the carpet without anyone really noticing. Article after article in the political journals comments on the danger in Japan but there are too many other distracting things happening right now for people to notice.

The bottom line is that the situation with the Japanese monarchy is more about internal politics than anything else. Historically, the JIF has been used -- deliberately and manipulatively --- for larger political, national purposes. Even in the Meiji period, the Emperor was controlled by a powerful oligarchy. It's happening again.

This fuss about Masako isn't really about her or Aiko; it's about the conservatives' attempts to return the monarchy to pre-WWII days when the Emperor was the symbol of the state. They're trying to rewrite the Constitution to that effect, change all the post-war Allied rules, and bring back Emperor worship. They want to remilitarize and bring back Japan's old glory, just as they did the banned Rising Sun flag and the banned militaristic/nationalistic anthem, as well as rewriting all the history books to the point that there were huge, HUGE violent uprisings in neighboring Asian countries.

The Conservatives in power can't afford to have a female succession change the backwards progression to the old days. How can they justify amending the Constitution to return the Emperor's role to the old Hirohito position of importance if the "Emperor" is a woman? How can they get support from all the Shinto and religious groups who have already revolted against a female monarch? How can they erase the past if they can't make the monarch a semi-divine figure or a fully divine one, especially if the monarch isn't even a direct (male) descendent of the Goddess Amaterasu?

You mark my words, Japan in 10 years will be a huge problem, mostly because China and N. Korea (a paranoid state if there ever was one) will flip out over them. Both countries have already started but it will get much worse than week long violent riots where people die. South Korea and other countries too have also spoken up over the past year or so, with similar outbreaks.

The writing is on the wall, and a huge part of all this ties into the situation with the Japanese Imperial family. But the ultranationalists who make up Koizumi's govt. and who are likely be his successors don't care. They WILL bring back the old Japan of the 1930s, and no depressed woman or little girl is going to impede their plans.

I'm shutting up now and letting myself out before someone gags me with a pillow.