Japan’s popular Princess Aiko turned 23 on Sunday, as she takes on more official duties even while her future in the imperial family remains in doubt.
Aiko, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, graduated from university earlier this year and has since been taking part in official duties and palace rituals while working at the Red Cross Society, according to the Imperial Household Agency.
But Japanese law requires her to renounce her royal status and leave the family if she marries outside the imperial family.
The vast majority of Japan’s public supports changing the law to allow her to remain a royal and become emperor, but conservatives in the governing party insist on keeping male-only succession. Japan’s rapidly dwindling imperial family has only 16 members, including four men.
Aiko was to mark her birthday with her parents at the imperial palace in Tokyo.
The IHA also released several photos of Aiko, including one of her standing by a persimmon tree at a palace garden. Another showed her holding pieces of traditional handcrafted washi paper that she made at a workshop during her first solo official trip in October to the National Sports Festival in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Saga.
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