By Joji Sakurai
Associated Press
TOKYO — The forbidding gates of Japan’s Imperial Palace opened Sunday to let waves of well-wishers onto its manicured grounds to celebrate the birth of a baby girl to Crown Princess Masako and Crown Prince Naruhito, the heir to the throne.
Rituals honoring the birth of the royal couple’s first child in eight years of marriage started out as a family affair. Hours after the delivery Saturday, a court messenger placed a sword and purple silk robes beside the infant’s pillow at a hospital on the palace grounds.
On Sunday, it was the people’s turn to take their party to the palace.
Tens of thousands of Japanese of all ages lined up to sign a congratulatory book. Many waved Japanese flags and shouted "Banzai!" — or long life.
Heading the procession of well-wishers at the palace was Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, dressed in a tailcoat and leading a group of senior government officials.
"Many citizens are expressing their delight in a direct way … It is bright and heartwarming," Japanese news agencies quoted Koizumi as saying as he paid his respects.
In the evening, about ten thousand people were expected to join a lantern festival outside the palace organized by politicians and leading cultural figures.
Away from the festivities, Japan debated whether Japan’s imperial succession law should be changed to allow a woman to ascend to the throne.
Many Japanese have been fretting about the fate of the Chrysanthemum Throne — the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy — because the royal family has not produced a male heir since 1965, when Naruhito’s younger brother, Prince Akishino, was born.
"The baby’s birth makes it important to have a deeper discussion of the issue," the Yomiuri newspaper said in an editorial Sunday.
Other commentators said Naruhito, 41 and Masako, 37, still have time.
"It wouldn’t be appropriate to debate (the succession law) just after first child has just been born," the Mainichi newspaper said.
The 1,500-year-old imperial household last faced a succession crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when Empress Nagako gave birth to four girls before she had the current emperor, Akihito.
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