Japan's new royal due to arrive early

Princess Kiko

TOKYO - Japan's Princess Kiko, who is pregnant with a possible heir to the throne, is likely to give birth before her September due date through a caesarean operation, the Imperial Household Agency said last night.

Kiko, 39, will not immediately be hospitalised but will rest at home, a spokesman said.

Princess Kiko, the wife of Emperor Akihito's younger son, Prince Akishino, has partial placenta previa, a complication in which the placenta becomes implanted at a location lower than normal in the uterus.

No male has been born into Japan's imperial family since 1965, and the possibility that Kiko might bear a son has halted plans to revise a 1947 imperial succession law to give women equal rights to inherit the throne.

- REUTERS