Imperial Family In Crisis

Japan’s royal family is anchored by thousands of years of tradition, but as another princess walks away from regal privilege to marry the man she loves, might they now be forced to shake off the shackles of history in order to ensure their survival?

- William Langley

The bride spoke of her happiness, the groom of his good fortune, but as royal weddings go, the October 28 marriage of Japan’s Princess Ayako to businessman Kei Moriya was clearly short on ceremony. No carriages, no bands, no crowds, and – from the Imperial family – no compromises. When Ayako, 28, performed the traditional exchange of rings with her 32-year-old groom, she was also exchanging her royal life for one as a commoner. Princesses in the world’s oldest monarchy are not allowed to marry outside the royal ranks, so having arrived at the Meiji Shrine in central Tokyo as “Her Imperial Highness”, she left it as plain Mrs Moriya. Her “dowry” was a one-off, tax-free payment of $1.25million from the royal coffers.

Yet there is more to Ayako’s demotion than a touching tale of a woman sacrificing all for love. It arises from what is becoming the biggest crisis in the Japanese monarchy’s 2500-year-old history. While other royal families around the world have shaken off the dynastic cobwebs, refreshed their bloodlines and adapted to social change, the Imperial household clings jealously to its ancient ways.

Secrecy, tradition and obeisance remain its keywords, and while the nothing-newfangled approach may have helped maintain the monarchy’s mystique, it has also created a problem that no one foresaw or can currently find an answer to.

Essentially, the royal family is running out of royals – and most conspicuously out of marriageable men. In the four decades from 1965 to 2006 not a single male baby was born into the ranks. As a consequence, Japan’s young princesses – currently seven of them – have been left with no chance of finding husbands, unless, like Ayako, they venture beyond the royal confines.