Female to ascend (eventually) the Japanese throne (maybe); plus Mainichi ramble

Mainichi has a story about how the Japanese government is considering ways of allowing a woman to ascend the throne and rule as Empress, as a male heir hasn't been born in almost 40 years.

Japan Today mentioned a few days ago that Mainichi had this story in its Japanese edition, and a day or so later revised that article and renamed it "Hosoda denies gov't studying female ascension to throne". That the original Mainichi story only became available today says to me that Mainichi doesn't update its English edition very quickly.

I like this quote from the end of the Mainichi article, though:

Eight empresses have ruled Japan. The most recent rule was that of Empress Satoko from 1762 to 1770.

That's pretty recent, yeah...o_o

Ignoring the matter of the late English updates--because that's understandable--I'm sort of starting to wonder about Mainichi's credibility as a news source. Some of its headlines seem very unprofessional, and it doesn't back up its claims very well. For example: the blood type of the man who kidnapped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in Nara--and then sent her mother a message about it using the girl's cell phone--may now be known. Japan Today's headline is "Nara girl's killer could have type B blood". Mainichi's is "Nara schoolgirl murderer's blood type identified". In general, Japan Today is more cautious about its claims, while Mainichi will just say things as if they were facts. This makes me more willing to accept Japan Today's stories. (I also dislike the use of the term "schoolgirl", but that's another matter entirely.)