Masako, Crown Princess of Japan
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Masako, Crown Princess of Japan (雅子皇太子妃殿下 Masako kōtaishihi denka, the Crown Princess Masako?, born December 9, 1963, Tokyo, Japan) 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] Early life
She was born Masako Owada (小和田 雅子 Owada Masako?), the eldest daughter of Hisashi Owada, a senior diplomat. Masako went to live in Moscow with her parents when she was two years old and attended kindergarten in Moscow, Russia. Upon returning to Japan she attended a private girl's school, Denenchofu Futaba (Elementary School through second year of Senior High School), in Tokyo. 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 the President of the National Honor Society.
Princess Masako holds a BA (magna cum laude) in Economics from Harvard University and attended graduate course in International Relations at Balliol College, Oxford University. She also studied briefly at the University of Tokyo, where her father taught.
Fluent in English, Princess Masako was hired by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked with her father who was the Director General and prospective Vice Minister. 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.
She speaks English, French and Japanese.
[edit] Marriage
Masako first met the Crown Prince when she was a student at the University of Tokyo in November of 1986 but some say it was before this when her father escorted the members of the royal family as a diplomat. Throughout 1987, the couple was spotted many times in public. Her name disappeared from the list of possible imperial brides when a swirl of controversy surrounded the issue of her grandfather, who was the Chairman of Chisso, infamous for the Minamata disease pollution scandal. Behind the scenes, however, the relationship with the prince continued. The couple is said to have been genuinely in love, and the Prince proposed several times to which Masako eventually gave her consent. The Imperial Palace announced the engagement on January 19, 1993, which came as a huge surprise to the Japanese, who thought the relationship had ended long before.
The traditional wedding took place on June 9, 1993.
[edit] Family and succession
[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.
[edit] Debate
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. [1] [2] The current 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 upon his wife by the Imperial Household Agency and his wife's desire to pursue the life of a diplomat.[3]
[edit] Nephew
Plans to change the male-only law of imperial succession were shelved temporarily 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
[edit] External links
| Styles of The Crown Princess of Japan |
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| Reference style | Her Imperial Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Imperial Highness |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Biographies:
