LONDON -- We British respect tradition, but institutions, including monarchies, need to adapt and modernize. Many of the more junior members of the British royal family, for instance, have no real role to play and should, like their cousins in Scandinavia, live ordinary unsubsidized lives.
In Japan, conservative elements are stronger than in Britain and more resistant to change; but if the Japanese Imperial institution, an important stabilizing influence in Japan today, is to thrive, it needs to be allowed to adapt as I suspect its leading members would like it to do.
I share the Japanese people's pleasure at the birth of the new princess. I hope that the Crown Prince and Princess were given the opportunity to choose the name for their daughter and not merely informed of a decision by the household authorities, which announced the name with the traditional mumbo jumbo.