Japanese prime minister's wife has revealed she went through fertility treatment and considered adoption but said she and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have accepted they will have no children.
日本首相夫人安倍昭惠透露说,她曾进行过受孕治疗并考虑领养孩子,但她和首相丈夫安倍晋三现在已经接受了没有孩子的事实。
Akie Abe's remarks to a magazine were remarkably frank for a prime minister's wife, reflecting her effort to show a more human side of her husband, Japan's youngest post-World War II premier.
作为首相夫人,安倍昭惠对于某杂志的这番言论显得相当坦率,反映出她在努力展示她的丈夫、日本二战后最年轻的首相人性化的一面。
Shinzo Abe, 52, has pledged to encourage Japanese to have more children to reverse a declining birthrate, triggering media speculation as to why he is childless himself.
52岁的安倍晋三鼓励日本人为阻止出生率下降而积极生育,但他膝下无子的事实却惹来媒体各种猜测。
In an interview with the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju, Akie Abe, 44, confessed she felt strong pressure to bear children because her husband is a third-generation politician.
在接受日本月刊杂志《文艺春秋》的采访时,44岁的安倍昭惠坦言她对生孩子有很大的压力,因为丈夫是家族中的第3代政治家。
"Coming from a household of politicians, there was of course a lot of pressure, including from local constituents. But now it has become difficult, in part because of my age, so people no longer tell me to keep at it," she said.
她说:“出自政治世家当然会经受着许多压力,这些压力包括来自地方选区选民的。但现在情况变得更困难了,部分原因是我年龄的增加,所以人们也不再要求我继续怀孩子。”
"At the early stage, I did go through fertility treatment. But I think that I should accept my fate that I am the wife of a politician who became prime minister, and that we did not have the gift of having children."
“最初,我曾尝试过受孕治疗。但是我认为我应该接受自己的命运——我是一位成为首相的政治家的妻子,而上天没有赐予我们孩子作为礼物。”
She said she considered adopting a child a rare occurrence in Japan other than within extended families.
她表示考虑过领养孩子,在日本除了大家族普通家庭领养孩子还很少见。
"But I wasn't able to go through with it mentally and I didn't have the confidence to raise a child, so it didn't become a reality. "
“但我在精神上无法接受而且也没有养育孩子的信心,所以最终没有领养孩子。”
Akie Abe voiced sympathy for Crown Princess Masako, who has a 4-year-old daughter, Princess Aiko, but has been under intense pressure to bear a male heir to the throne.
安倍昭惠也对日本太子妃雅子表示了同情。雅子育有4岁的女儿爱子,但因未为日本皇室生育男性继承人而饱受压力。
"I think the crown princess had an unimaginably hard time due to the strong pressure, which is incomparable to us. But I guess Princess Kiko was a relief to her," she said.
她说:“我想太子妃度过了常人难以想象的艰难时期,这都是由于面临巨大的压力,而那些压力是我们不能相比的。但我想纪子王妃减轻了她的痛苦。”
Princess Kiko, the wife of the emperor's second son, Prince Akishino, delivered a boy last month, Prince Hisahito, giving the royal family an heir.
日本皇次子文仁亲王之妻纪子妃在上月产下皇子悠仁,为日本皇室增添了男性继承人。 |