Princess a chip off the old block

TOKYO - Japan's Princess Aiko turned 4 yesterday, as debate swirled over a proposal to change the imperial succession law to enable her to become the first female to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne in centuries.

Aiko, who has shed her baby fat but is still the spitting image of her father, Crown Prince Naruhito, was to visit her grandparents, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, have lunch with her parents and attend a tea party with some 50 guests - all adults.

Photos released by the Imperial Household Agency showed Aiko in activities from finger-painting and "rhythmic dancing" to playing with clay and with her parents in their palace garden.

The royal birthday comes just one week after advisers to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recommended that women be given equal rights to inherit the throne. Koizumi has said he would present the revisions to Parliament next year.

- REUTERS