GUERRA EN LA CORTE DEL CRISANTEMO

El nacimiento de un barón en la familia real japonesa está sacando a la luz algunas de las contradicciones del país. Por un lado, se incita a las mujeres a seguir una vida moderna; por otro, algunas tradiciones continúan inamovibles en Japón. Una de cal y una de arena. Mientras, las tramas dentro de la familia imperial entre las princesas Kiko y Masako han dividido a parte de la sociedad japonesa.

Un artículo muy interesante en The Time analiza algunas de estas cuestiones:

Japan is divided into opposing camps of royal watchers: Team Kiko and Team Masako. It is an unusual development. The imperial family, the oldest royal line in the world, is also the most tightly controlled. Its members aren't allowed to have last names, personal wealth, opinions or, for the most part, lives. But the behind-the-scenes tug-of-war over the future of the dynasty has made the royals unexpectedly human--and made Masako and Kiko living symbols of the intense pressure on Japanese women to be both modern and traditional.

In the modern sense, you couldn't ask for a more qualified crown princess than Masako. Daughter of a Japanese diplomat, educated at Harvard, Oxford and the University of Tokyo, Masako was so dedicated to her budding career in Japan's Foreign Ministry that she rebuffed Crown Prince Naruhito's engagement proposal for five years before finally marrying him in 1993. "I thought she was so striking and cool," says Harumi Kobayashi, a fan who has published three books on Masako.

But as year after year passed without a royal pregnancy, hopes that Masako would become the modern face of the imperial family gradually died. It was clear that she had failed in her one traditional duty: to produce a male heir.