Japan set to pave way for Empress to end Imperial crisis

THE Japanese royal family is set to change its succession laws to enable the three-year-old daughter of the current Crown Prince to become the first Empress for 200 years.

Princess Aiko, the three-year-old daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, will be next in line after her father.

Japan's royals are facing their most serious succession crisis in centuries. The current law bars women from ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne but no boy has been born to the imperial family since the 1960s.