Japan’s Princess Aiko with her pet dog in the garden of the Imperial Residence in Tokyo ahead of her 20th birthday. Photo: The Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP
As Japan’s Princess Aiko turns 20, what her ‘boring’ coming-of-age reveals about an imperial family in crisis
- Observers agree a statement released on Aiko’s behalf to mark her 20th birthday was kept as vanilla as possible to deny the Japanese tabloids more fodder
- It comes as Japan grapples with a looming imperial succession crisis that some say could be solved by allowing women to sit on the Chrysanthemum Throne
Japan’s Princess Aiko with her pet dog in the garden of the Imperial Residence in Tokyo ahead of her 20th birthday. Photo: The Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP