Can. Of. Worms.
Whooooaaaa, a good old can of worms was well and truly opened yesterday in Japan. The foreign community here will be foaming at the mouth after yesterdays little stunt….
It seems, some old farts are a bunch of sexist, racist pigs. BBC Report and MDN Report. It’s all about the proposed move to allow women to acsend to the Japanese throne.
As from the BBC Site…
This, Mr Hiranuma argued, could be dangerous.
“If Aiko becomes the reigning empress, and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the emperor,” he told the rally at a Tokyo hall.
“We should get united and prevent the Cabinet from submitting legislation to parliament,” he said.
“We’ll do our best to preserve the authentic tradition and culture and protect our nation.”
Oh dear… 
Of course, the idiot didn’t actually think of the possibility of the MALE Japanese Emperor in a situation where he went abroad, got involved with a (SHOCK HORROR!!!) blue-eyed foreigner (how I laugh when I hear that phrase) and marries, and they have kids??? It’s just the bloody same!!
of course, it would never happen, with the controlling nature of the Imperial Household Agency controlling the Imperial Family as if they were pets, not people.
2006 Feb 02 Gavin
Sorry but I don’t see the problem with Mr Hiranuma’s reasonable and well made point. It is obvious to anyone that blue-eyed foreigners, or indeed foreigners of any eye colour, are a threat to the purity of the Japanese race. Any preventative measures that can be enacted now to prevent Princess Akiko, or any member of the royal family, coming into contact with a foreigner must be beneficial for the good of Japan.
No really.
Yeah, this was fairly unbelievable. In fact, I thought it was a joke when I first heard it. I think the only reasonable thing to do would be to grow all future emperors under carefully monitored laboratory conditions.