 In January 2007, the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, announced that he would drop an earlier proposal to alter the Imperial Household Law so as to allow females to inherit the throne.The proposal had been made on the basis of the fact that the two sons of Emperor Akihito had, at the time, no sons of their own.Given Hisahito's birth, it now seems increasingly unlikely that the laws will be changed to allow Hisahito's cousin, Princess Aiko, the daughter and only child of the Emperor Naruhito, to become a reigning Empress and thus end the Japanese succession controversy.