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Japanese Princess Kiko was hospitalized Wednesday for complications related to her pregnancy, as Japan holds its breath for a possible first male heir in the royal family in four decades.
The 39-year-old princess will stay in hospital until she gives birth by Caesarean section, reportedly around September 6.
With television networks broadcasting live, Kiko, wearing a gray suit, nodded to a waiting crowd through the half-open window of her chauffeur-driven car as she sat next to her moustachioed husband, Prince Akishino.
The princess is set to be the first member of Japan's royal family to give birth at a private hospital as deliveries usually take place at the palace.
Kiko has been admitted to the Aiiku hospital in Tokyo's upscale Hiroo neighborhood. The hospital was built in 1934 in honor of the birth a year earlier of Emperor Akihito, who has three grandchildren, all of them girls.
The princess has been diagnosed with an abnormal placement of the placenta.
Japanese physicians have said expectant mothers with placenta previa occasionally experience sudden bleeding toward the end of their pregnancy, and that a Caesarean section is often used to ensure the health of the mother and child.
Officials said on Tuesday that Kiko would be hospitalized to prevent premature bleeding related to the complication and to prepare her to give birth.
Kiko has two daughters aged 11 and 14. The eldest, Mako, returned from a two-week visit to Austria and greeted her mother before the princess headed to hospital.
The palace said the princess was in a stable condition and that the fetus, whose gender is yet to be announced, has developed normally.
If the baby is a boy, he would be the first heir to be born to the imperial family in more than 40 years and would be third in line to the throne after Crown Prince Naruhito and Prince Akishino.
Japan has the world's longest-running monarchy, which according to legend dates back 2,600 years and has been passed exclusively along a paternal line.
No boy has been born to the imperial family since Akishino himself in 1965, spelling crisis for the monarchy.
Naruhito and his wife Masako, a US-educated former career diplomat, have one child, four-year-old Princess Aiko.
The lack of a male heir has put intense pressure on Masako, who suffered a miscarriage in 1999 and rarely appears in public due to stress.
Kiko's pregnancy was a dream come true for conservatives as it led Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to drop plans to let a woman sit on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
Previous opinion polls showed more than two-thirds of Japanese support female succession, in part out of sympathy for Masako.
Naruhito, Masako and Aiko will leave Thursday for a summer vacation the Netherlands, where Masako's father is a judge on the International Court of Justice.
It is the first known time that a Japanese royal has gone abroad to recuperate.
Masako's doctors recommended the trip, which came at the invitation of Queen Beatrix, so she can rest in a quiet environment overseas.
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AFP 160928 GMT 08 06
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