A record number of Japanese want a law on imperial succession changed to allow a woman to succeed to the throne, an opinion poll showed. The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said on Sunday the poll showed 84 percent of respondents approved of the idea that an Empress could rule Japan, which the paper said was the highest proportion it had ever recorded in such a survey. The question of succession to the throne now occupied by 71-year-old Emperor Akihito is gaining urgency because no boys have been born into the Imperial household for four decades.

The poll comes weeks before an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to issue recommendations on whether to revise the 1947 law limiting accession to males and their descendants. A change in the law could allow Princess Aiko, the only child of heir to the throne, Crown Prince Naruhito, to become Japan’s first reigning empress since the 18th century. Aiko was born in 2001, eight years after Naruhito married Crown Princess Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat who will turn 42 in December.