Princess Kikuko, 92; Sister-in-Law of Emperor Hirohito
Princess Kikuko, 92, the sister-in-law of Japan’s late Emperor Hirohito and an unusually progressive member of the tradition-bound royal family, died Saturday in Tokyo of kidney problems.
The widow of Hirohito’s younger brother, Takamatsu, she was also the granddaughter of Japan’s last shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa. Kikuko had been a champion of cancer research since the 1930s, organizing symposiums and awarding scientists for groundbreaking work.
The princess shocked many Japanese in 1995 when she published the diaries of her late husband, who had been an advisor to Hirohito during World War II.
The diaries contained criticism of Japan’s wartime military.
After Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako had a daughter in 2000, Kikuko was the first royal to call publicly for changes to a postwar law that allows only male heirs to assume the Chrysanthemum Throne.
She had no children of her own.
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