Tokyo, Nov 15 (EFE).- Japan’s Princess Yuriko died on Friday morning at the age of 101, a spokesman for the Imperial Household Agency said.
The news comes days after the agency reported that her heart and kidney functions were declining.
Yuriko, the eldest member of the imperial family and great-aunt of Emperor Naruhito, was admitted to St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo in March for a stroke and pneumonia, and she had been recuperating there since.
She had 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 Jese imperial family currently play an important role in the performance of official duties and public appearances of the institution, in which they are the majority despite not having succession rights.
Of the 16 current members of the imperial family, 11 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
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