Tokyo, Nov 11 (EFE).- The health of Japan’s 101-year-old Princess Yuriko has worsened, the Imperial Household Agency said on Monday.
The functioning of Yuriko’s heart, kidney and other organs is declining, said Takeichiro Kuroda, Deputy Director-General of the Imperial Household Agency.
The oldest member of the Japanese imperial family was admitted to St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo in March for a stroke and pneumonia, where she is still recuperating.
She has not made any public appearances since New Year’s Day, when she attended a ceremony at the Imperial Palace and visited the residence of the emeritus emperors.
Yuriko is the widow of the late Prince Mikasa, whom she married in 1941 and who was one of three brothers of Emperor Hirohito, grandfather of the current Emperor Naruhito, and who died in 2016 at the age of 100.
Women in the imperial family currently play an important role in the performance of official duties and public appearances of the institution, where they are the majority despite not having succession rights.
Of the 17 current members of the Japanese imperial family, 12 are women, wives of princes or their unmarried daughters, since when women in the imperial family marry commoners they must give up their royal status.
This has caused a pressing succession problem in a country with Salic law in which currently only three members have succession rights: Crown Prince Akishino, 58; his son, Prince Hisahito, 18, and the latter’s great-uncle, Prince Hitachi, 88, brother of Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 90.
Emperor Naruhito has only one daughter, Princess Aiko, 22. EFE
emg/tw
