Japan prince to be treated for alcohol dependency

TOKYO, June 22 (Reuters) An outspoken cousin of Japan's Emperor Akihito, who in the past has suggested reviving royal concubines, will be treated for alcohol dependency and needs to be hospitalised for over a month, the government said today.

The Imperial Household Agency said doctors also diagnosed the 61-year-old Prince Tomohito of Mikasa with severe insomnia.

The prince set off a controversy in 2005, when he floated the idea of reintroducing the concubines as a way to preserve the male imperial line.

At the time, faced with the fact that no males had been born in the royal family in 40 years, a government advisory panel had recommended allowing a reigning empress.

But moves toward revising imperial succession laws that only allow males descended from an emperor to ascend the throne died down after a prince was born last September in the family of Akihito's second son.

REUTERS KK VC1130