TOKYO, Dec 1: Japan’s Crown Princess Masako gave birth to a girl on Saturday, bringing cheer to a nation stuck in the economic doldrums but also renewing the debate over changing the law to allow a woman to ascend the throne.

Both Masako, 37, and the baby — the first born to the princess and Crown Prince Naruhito in more than eight years of marriage — were doing well, court officials said. They said the baby weighed in at 3.102 kilograms.

But the birth is likely to intensify a long debate over the law that says only males can inherit the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy, into which no boys have been born since 1965.

Still, the long-awaited baby for the diplomat turned princess was a rare bit of happy news for a country that has been hit hard by a seemingly endless tide of economic woes.

The princess miscarried in late 1999 after a media circus that some blamed for the unhappy outcome of her first pregnancy. Media coverage of this pregnancy had been muted as a result.

“It is good that the birth went well,” a court official quoted the baby’s grandfather, Emperor Akihito, as saying.

Empress Michiko was said to have been teary-eyed when told of the birth of her eldest son’s first child, her third grandchild.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed the nation’s joy. “It is happy, cheerful news,” he told reporters. Some analysts have said it could even persuade edgy consumers to pry open their purses and spend.

“This news gives the people of Japan peace of mind and hope in the middle of a world made dismal by the domestic economic slump and the situation in Afghanistan,” said Takashi Imai, head of the business lobby Keidanren.

HAPPINESS, AND DUTIES: Japan’s newest royal got her first taste of the life of ritual and official duties that lie ahead when the emperor presented her with a ceremonial samurai sword and a hakama, a ceremonial skirt once part of traditional court dress for women.