The percentage of people who support allowing a child of a female monarch to ascend the Imperial throne fell 7.8 percentage points from December to 64 percent, following news that Princess Kiko, the wife of Emperor Akihito's second son, is pregnant.
A Kyodo News survey this weekend found that on the order of succession, 43.6 percent said males should be given priority over females, up 1.4 points, exceeding the 38.9 percent who said the emperor's firstborn child should be given priority regardless of gender, down 4.4 points.
News of Princess Kiko's pregnancy has raised the possibility the Imperial family will have its first male heir since 1965 and led Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to give up submitting a bill during the current Diet session to revise the Imperial House Law to allow females and their descendants to reign.