JAPAN: Japan's Princess Kiko was preparing to give birth last night to what many hope will be the imperial family's first male baby since 1965.
If the baby is a boy, he will rescue the family from a succession crisis that threatens it with extinction within a couple of generations.
The 39-year-old princess is due to give birth to her third child sometime today in a private Tokyo clinic by Caesarian section, following complications during her pregnancy.
Justice minister Seiken Sugiura spoke for the government of prime minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday when he said he "expected a baby boy" to be born.
Although the secretive Imperial Household Agency, which runs the Imperial Palace, has insisted the sex of the baby is not known, most of the tabloid media have concluded that the princess is expecting a male heir.
A boy would save the government from another potentially damaging attempt to revise the current male-only succession rules and allow a female to sit on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
Traditionalists believe the imperial line stretches back unbroken over 125 generations and strongly oppose changing the 1947 Imperial Household Law.
Princess Kiko's unexpected pregnancy was announced early this year just as opposition against the revision was growing among conservative government ministers and palace officials.
The opponents include chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe, the man most likely to succeed Mr Koizumi this month.