Japan politicians out of step with people on heir

TOKYO, Sep 7 (Reuters) Conservative politicians who plan to scrap a proposal to let women ascend Japan's throne after the birth of a new prince are out of sync with many ordinary Japanese, who want the imperial family to change with the times.

Princess Kiko, the wife of the emperor's second son, yesterday gave birth to the first royal baby boy in 41 years, cheering traditionalists eager to keep a line of male descent they say dates back more than 2,000 years.

''The birth of the little prince has completely erased the dark mood of Japanese worried about the nation's future,'' the conservative Sankei newspaper gushed in an editorial today.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the government would not present to parliament next year any proposal to change the existing law that limits successions to males, but people on the streets of Tokyo still want change.

''I think a woman should be allowed to be emperor,'' said Koh Shouji, 21, who works at a central Tokyo real estate firm.

''After all, it's a gender-free society these days, and there shouldn't be discrimination of this kind,'' he added.

An opinion poll earlier this year showed 63 percent of Japanese want a change to allow women to take the throne and Koizumi had planned to revise the law until Kiko's pregnancy stalled debate.

A change in rules would have cleared the way for the Crown Prince's 4-year-old daughter, Aiko, to become the first reigning empress since the 18th century.

''We should not make one boy shoulder more than a thousand years of history,'' said ruling party lawmaker Taro Kono in an email newsletter. ''Debate must be resumed soon.'' Koizumi said after the birth that the subject would need to be revisited and others agreed the future of the royal family was far from secure, as the boy is Emperor Akihito's only grandson.

''Japan has a tendency to accept short-term solutions to verything, whether diplomacy, politics, or this,'' said 48-year-old Kyoko Honda, an accounting firm employee who favoured allowing the eldest child to inherit regardless of gender.

''We need to consider the issue in a much longer time frame,'' she added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a conservative lawmaker widely tipped to replace Koizumi this month, was coy about the future of reform, but former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, 88, said the matter was closed for now.

Traditionalists agree that change is needed but prefer to preserve the male line by reviving princely houses abolished after World War Two or bring back royal concubines, a practice abandoned by the current emperor's father, Hirohito.

''Bloodlines that have lasted for hundreds of years still exist among the princely houses and this is a precious thing for the world,'' Takeo Hiranuma, a lawmaker who led efforts to block change in the succession rules, told a TV show today.

Such proposals may not meet much favour among the public who see that monarchies overseas allow women on the throne.

''Japan has had reigning empresses in the past,'' said Masashi Nagano, a 36-year-old university lecturer.

''There's no reason to insist on differences between the sexes now,'' he said.

Reuters DKA DB1141