Masako, Crown Princess of Japan

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Masako, Crown Princess of Japan

Born December 9, 1963 (1963-12-09) (age 44)
Tokyo, Japan
Title Crown Princess of Japan
Spouse Naruhito
Relatives Hisashi Owada
Imperial House of Japan

Masako, Crown Princess of Japan (雅子皇太子妃殿下 Masako kōtaishihi denka, the Crown Princess Masako?, born December 9, 1963) is the wife of Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, the first son of the Emperor Akihito and the Empress Michiko, and a member of the Japanese Imperial Family through marriage.

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[edit] Childhood

She was born Masako Owada (小和田 雅子 Owada Masako?), the eldest daughter of Hisashi Owada, a senior diplomat. She has two younger sisters, twins named Setsuko and Reiko. Masako went to live in Moscow with her parents when she was two years old, and attended kindergarten in Moscow. Upon returning to Japan, she attended a private girl's school, Denenchofu Futaba, in Tokyo from elementary school through her second year of senior high school. Masako and her family moved to the United States when her father became a guest professor at Harvard University and also vice ambassador to the United States. She graduated from Belmont High School in Belmont, Massachusetts, near Boston, where she was president of the National Honor Society.

[edit] Education

Princess Masako holds a Bachelor of Arts (AB) magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard University and attended but did not finish the graduate course in International Relations at Balliol College, Oxford University. She also studied briefly at the University of Tokyo, where her father taught.

[edit] Employment

Masako was formerly employed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked with her father, the Director General and prospective Vice Minister. During her career she met many world leaders, such as U.S. president Bill Clinton and Russian president Boris Yeltsin. She also took part as a translator in negotiations with the United States concerning superconductors.

Princess Masako has remained largely out of the public eye since before 2003, allegedly due to a mental disorder which many speculate is due in part to the pressure to produce a male heir.[1] The Princess -- and the bullying she has allegedly experienced at the hands of the Imperial Household Agency -- are the subject of a controversial best-seller written by the Australian investigative journalist Ben Hills titled Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne. Hills sold the Japanese translation rights to a former member of the Japanese Red Army.[citation needed]

[edit] Marriage

Masako first met the Crown Prince when she was a student at the University of Tokyo in November of 1986, although some say they had actually met previously when her father served as an escort to members of the royal family. Masako and the Crown Prince were spotted together many times in public throughout 1987.

Masako's name disappeared from the list of possible imperial brides due to controversy about her grandfather, Chairman of Chisso, a corporation infamous for the Minamata disease pollution scandal. Behind the scenes, however, the relationship with the prince continued. The Prince proposed several times before Masako eventually gave her consent. The Imperial Palace announced the engagement on January 19, 1993. The news came as a huge surprise to the Japanese public, who thought the relationship had ended long before.

The Crown Prince and Masako were married in a traditional wedding ceremony on June 9, 1993.

[edit] Family and succession

Standard of the Crown Princess
Standard of the Crown Princess
Cover of the book Princess Masako by Ben Hills, showing her in a jūnihitoe on her marriage ceremony
Cover of the book Princess Masako by Ben Hills, showing her in a jūnihitoe on her marriage ceremony

[edit] Princess Aiko

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess have one child, HIH The Princess Aiko (her official title is Toshi no Miya, or Princess Toshi), born on December 1, 2001.

The child's birth, which occurred more than eight years after her parents' marriage, sparked lively debate in Japan about whether the The Imperial Household Law of 1947 should be changed from that of primogeniture (male-preference) to equal primogeniture, which would allow a woman to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne.

A government-appointed panel of experts submitted a report on October 25, 2005, recommending that the Imperial succession law be amended to permit equal primogeniture. On January 20, 2006, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi used part of his annual keynote speech to address the controversy when he pledged to submit a bill to the Diet letting women ascend to the throne in order that the imperial throne be continued into the future in a stable manner. Koizumi did not announce a timing for the legislation to be introduced nor did he provide details about the content but he did note that it would be in line with the conclusions of the 2005 government panel.

It has been widely speculated that the immense pressure to produce an heir rather than pursuing her career as a diplomat has put great stress on the Crown Princess.[2][3] The Japanese Constitution does not allow the members of the royal family to engage in political activities. The Prince has made pointed and controversial comments about discourtesies and pressures placed on his wife by the Imperial Household Agency and his wife's desire to pursue the life of a diplomat.[4]

[edit] Nephew

Plans to change the male-only law of imperial succession were shelved after it was announced in February 2006 that the Crown Prince's younger brother, Prince Akishino, and his wife Princess Kiko were expecting their third child. On September 6, 2006, at 8:27 a.m. (Japan Standard Time), Princess Kiko gave birth to a son, Hisahito, who is third in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne under the current law, after his uncle, the Crown Prince and his father, Prince Akishino.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-japan-prince.html
  2. ^ Royal wives seek new role in monarchies
  3. ^ BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Princess trapped by palace guard
  4. ^ Airing wife's troubles a turning point: prince - World - www.theage.com.au

[edit] External links

Styles of
The Crown Princess of Japan
Imperial Coat of Arms
Reference style Her Imperial Highness
Spoken style Your Imperial Highness
Japanese denka 殿下

Biographies: