Japan's Princess Kiko needs Caesarean - Kyodo

TOKYO, July 18 (Reuters) Japanese Emperor Akihito's younger son's wife, who is pregnant with a possible heir to the throne, needs a Caesarean operation and the baby, due in late September, may be born early, Kyodo news agency today said, quoting a palace doctor.

Kyodo said earlier that Princess Kiko, 39, had symptoms of placenta previa, a complication in which the placenta becomes implanted at a location lower than normal in the uterus.

No male has been born into Japan's imperial family since 1965, and the possibility that Kiko might bear a son halted plans to revise a 1947 imperial succession law to give women equal rights to inherit the throne. That would have cleared the way for Princess Aiko, the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito, to become Japan's first reigning empress since the 18th century.

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