It is also clear that the royal couple's minders, the Imperial Household Agency, were surprised by the leak. They reacted with unusual anger at the news and lashed out at the press. Yet the Asahi Shimbun never would have run with the story without confirmation from the most reliable sources, says one retired senior journalist. The reality, of course, is that no pregnancy will save Japan from its increasingly bleak economic condition. Japan has run out of easy answers to its economic woes.
Savvy politicians know that the only economic hope for Japan is structural economic reform.
That, however, will entail real economic pain from a public cocooned for years from change. I asked an LDP politician about this dilemma. Young and internationally minded, he completely understands the stark choices that Japan faces. He also understands why he can't do anything about it. Japan's postwar generation, he says, has never suffered the kind of economic hardships that their parents did.