9月6日，日本人的目光都會緊盯東京一家私人醫院的病房，因為39歲的紀子妃將在此接受剖腹產手術。由于日本皇室已經40多年沒有誕生過男性子孫，王位繼承人的問題長久以來令政府頭痛不已。如果紀子妃產下的嬰兒依然是女嬰，《皇室典范》中不承認女性天皇的律條極可能會被改寫。至此，這個被期望是男嬰的孩子將最終決定日本皇室的走向。

This photo, taken last month, shows Japanese Prince Akishino (L) and his wife Princess Kiko entering the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to meet with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Japan is holding its breath for this week's royal birth, hoping Princess Kiko will bear the family's first male heir in four decades and ease a succession crisis in the widely revered monarchy. [AFP\File] Kiko, 39, the wife of the emperor's younger son, Akishino, is to undergo a Caesarean section after pregnancy complications.  If the child is a boy, the birth will avert a succession crisis caused by the fact that no male has been born into Japan's royal family since 1965. Crown Prince Naruhito, the emperor's elder son, has one daughter, 4-year-old Aiko, who cannot ascend the throne under existing law. The birth of another girl would leave the country in a quandary over the future of the monarchy. Public opinion polls earlier in the year showed that the majority of the electorate would back a reigning empress. But plans to revise the 1947 imperial succession law to give women equal rights to inherit the throne were opposed by conservatives including Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to become prime minister in a ruling party leadership election later this month. The proposals were shelved when Kiko's pregnancy was announced. Kiko, who already has two daughters aged 14 and 11, went into a central Tokyo hospital two weeks ago to rest and prepare for the birth. Japan's tabloids have said her third child is already known to be a boy, but there has been no official announcement of the baby's sex. Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, a U.S.-educated former diplomat, returned along with Aiko from a rare private overseas trip to the Netherlands on Thursday. (Agencies)

Vocabulary:

Caesarean section: 剖腹產 ascend the throne: 繼承王位 electorate: 選民 shelve: 擱置，不予考慮 （英語點津陳蓓編輯）