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Im not sure how the Japanese would view a marriage of one of their Princesses to a foreign royal. It is my understanding that in order to remain a member of the Japanese Imperial family after marriage a princess has to marry within the family.

The problem with a reigning empress is that she cannot perform all the Shinto rituals an emperor performs and that without male line heirs of a line that is supposed to exist for 2600 years she would have no successors.

I find the comparison with the Papacy a practical one. A pope is always a man (excluding the legend of Popess Joan) and that has gone on so for 2000 years. The Japanese imperial succession is 6 centuries older and will like the papacy not easily change it rules.