Japan’s littlest princess turned three yesterday as authorities grappled with the issue of whether to make legal changes that would one day allow her ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Photographs released to the media showed Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, perched in a tree as her smiling parents look on and support her from below. “She plays by doing things such as climbing trees, throwing large balls, reading picture books and playing house,” an Imperial Household Agency spokeswoman said.

Aiko – born to much rejoicing after her parents had been married nearly eight years – met her grandparents, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace along with her father. Masako, who turns 41 on Dec. 9, did not accompany them since she is in mourning for her grandmother, who died last month. Masako, once a vibrant career diplomat, has spent nearly a year in seclusion with a stress-related illness, attributed by many royal watchers partly to pressure to produce a male heir. Current law mandates that only males can inherit the throne.

The Mainichi newspaper said yesterday that the government had already begun considering revising the imperial household law to let a woman reign as empress and aimed to submit a revised bill to parliament in a few years. In a sign that the matter is sensitive in some quarters, Japan’s top government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, denied plans were afoot, but acknowledged that politicians had opened the debate.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party unveiled a draft proposal last month to revise the constitution to allow a woman to succeed to the throne. No boys have been born into the imperial family since Akishino, Naruhito’s younger brother, in 1965. Akishino is second in line to the throne, but both of his children are girls.