Tokyo – Japan’s Princess Yuriko, wife of wartime Emperor Hirohito’s brother and the eldest member of the imperial family, has died after her health recently deteriorated, palace officials said. Yuriko died Friday at the age of 101 in a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Born an aristocrat in 1923, Yuriko married Prince Mikasa, Hirohito’s younger brother and the great-uncle of current Emperor Naruhito, at the age of 18, months before the start of the war. World War II.
She says that she lived in a shelter with her husband and their daughter after their home burned down in the last months of the war in 1945 during the American firebombing of Tokyo.
Imperial Household Agency via AP
Yuriko raised five children and supported Mikasa’s research into the history of the ancient Near East, while also fulfilling her official duties and participating in philanthropic activities, including the promotion of maternal and child health. She survived her husband and all three of their sons.
Her death reduces Japan’s rapidly dwindling Imperial Family to sixteen people, including four men. The country is faced with the dilemma of how to preserve the royal lineage, with conservatives in the ruling party pushing for the succession to be exclusively male.
The 1947 Imperial House Law, which largely preserves Japan’s conservative pre-war family values, allows only men to ascend the throne and forces female members of the royal family who marry commoners to lose their royal status. That rule came into effect relatively recently, back then Princess Mako married her non-royal fiancé Kei Komuro in October 2021, promptly abdicating her royal title and trappings – and robbing the shrinking Imperial Family of another member.
The youngest male member of the imperial family, Prince Hisahito – Emperor Naruhito’s cousin – is currently the last heir to the throne, which poses a major problem for a system that does not allow empresses. The conservative-led government is debating how to keep the succession stable without relying on women.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who visited South America to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 summits, issued a statement offering “sincere condolences”.
Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Aiko and other family members visited Mikasa’s residence to mourn Yuriko’s death. The palace announced that the general public who wish to express their condolences can sign a book from Saturday.
Yuriko had lived a healthy life as a centenarian before suffering a stroke and pneumonia in March.
Douglas Glynn/Toronto Star/Getty
She enjoyed morning exercise while watching a daily fitness program on television, the Imperial Household Agency said. She also continued to read several newspapers and magazines and enjoyed watching news and baseball on TV. On sunny days she sat in the palace garden or was wheeled in her wheelchair.
Yuriko was hospitalized after her stroke and has been in intensive care since then. Her general condition has deteriorated over the past week, the Imperial Household Agency said.
