Princess Yuriko, the oldest member of the Japanese imperial family and great-aunt of Emperor Naruhito, died this Friday at the age of 101 in a Tokyo hospital, according to a spokesperson for the Japanese Imperial Household Agency.
The news comes days after said agency reported that his heart and kidney functions were worsening after being hospitalized in a hospital in the Tokyo capital for months.
Yuriko was admitted to St. Luke’s International Hospital, in the center of the Japanese capital, this March for a stroke and pneumonia, and had not made public appearances since New Year’s Daywhen he attended a ceremony at the Tokyo Imperial Palace and visited the residence of the emperors emeritus.
Yuriko is the widow of the late Prince Mikasa whom she married in 1941, and who was one of the three brothers of Emperor Hirohito, grandfather of the current Emperor Naruhito, and who died in 2016 at the age of 100.
The women of the Japanese imperial family currently play an important role in the performance of official functions and public appearances of the institution, where they are the majority despite not having inheritance rights.
Of the 16 current members of the Japanese imperial family, 11 are womenwives of princes or their unmarried daughters, since when the women of the imperial family marry commoner men they must abandon the family genealogy and their functions.
This has caused a pressing succession problem in a country with Salic law in which currently only three members have inheritance rights: Crown Prince Akishino, 58; his son, Prince Hisahito (18), and the latter’s great-uncle, Prince Hitachi, 88, brother of Emperor Emeritus Akihito (90).
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