Japan Princess Kiko to give birth on Wednesday

TOKYO, Sep 1 (Reuters) Japan's Princess Kiko, pregnant with a possible heir to the Chrysanthemum throne, is to give birth on Wednesday, an official at the Imperial Household Agency said today.

Kiko, 39, the wife of the emperor's younger son, Akishino, is to undergo a Caesarean section after pregnancy complications.

If the child is a boy, the birth will avert a succession crisis caused by the fact that no male has been born into Japan's royal family since 1965.

Crown Prince Naruhito, the emperor's elder son, has one daughter, 4-year-old Aiko, who cannot ascend the throne under existing law.

The birth of another girl would leave the country in a quandary over the future of the monarchy.

Public opinion polls earlier in the year showed that the majority of the electorate would back a reigning empress.

But plans to revise the 1947 imperial succession law to give women equal rights to inherit the throne were opposed by conservatives including Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to become Prime Minister in a ruling party leadership election later this month.

The proposals were shelved when Kiko's pregnancy was announced.

Kiko, who already has two daughters aged 14 and 11, went into a central Tokyo hospital two weeks ago to rest and prepare for the birth.

Japan's tabloids have said her third child is already known to be a boy, but there has been no official announcement of the baby's sex.

Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, a US-educated former diplomat, returned along with Aiko from a rare private overseas trip to the Netherlands yesterday.

Masako, 42, has been largely absent from public view in recent years, suffering from a mental disorder many attribute at least in part to the pressure to produce a male heir.

REUTERS BDP RK1450