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Excerpts from “The Tale of Masako,” Japan, December/January 2002
Related Article - Princess Aiko
When the news broke in December 1999 that Crown Princess Masako might be expecting her first child, the whole of Japan went wild with joy. For the six years since her marriage, the media had watched obsessively for signs of pregnancy, remarking every time she canceled an appointment or wore flat shoes. Now, finally, it seemed, she really was pregnant, just as the new millenium was about to begin. But the excitement turned out to be short-lived. A few weeks into her pregnancy, the princess suffered a miscarriage. The Imperial Household Agency, which regulates imperial affairs, put the blame firmly on the press for having put her under such pressure.
The miscarriage was far more than just a personal tragedy. At stake was the survival of the imperial family itself. The origins may be lost in myth, but as long as there has been historial record, since at least the 6th century, the same family has sat on the Chrysanthemum Throne. However, according to law, only males can inherit; and no royal males have been born for the last 35 years. If Crown Prince Naruhito has no children, his younger brother, Prince Akishino, will be next in line, followed by his uncle, Prince Hitachi. But for the succession to move sideways, for either of these to become emperor, would be unthinkable to the Japanese people. It would spark a major succession crisis and might even bring about the end of the imperial dynasty.
“According to well-placed palace insiders, every month since her marriage the princess has been summoned to the imperial presence. Using the politest and most formal of language, the emperor enquires as to whether she has had a period that month. Each time she has had to lower her head in shame and confess that, sadly, she has failed yet again to conceive a child. They also point out that she has effectively been grounded until she does her duty and produces an heir. At the time of her miarriage, it was widely reported that the crown prince had promised her that she would be a diplomat for the imperial family. But in the eight years since then, she has been abroad only three times. This April the grand chamberlain of the crown prince’s household, Furukawa, Kiyoshi, called a press conference to announce that the princess might be “showing signs of pregnancy.” On May 15 he confirmed it.
“The word most often used to describe Masako in her early years is “tomboy.” Her early years were spent moving from country to country, following the meteoric progress of her father’s career. She went to kindergarten in Moscow, elementary school near New York, and high school back in Japan. When she was 15, the family moved back to the United States, to Boston....when the time came to go to university, she demonstrated that she had a mind of her own. Most Japanese youngsters defer to their parents’ wishes when it comes to choosing their university and courses; Masako, however, wanted to stay in the United States, even though her family was leaving the country. She applied to Harvard, Yales, Princeton, Stanford and Smith. Amazingly, she was accepted by all of them. She graduated [Harvard] magna cum laude in 1985, and then decided to go back to Japan. She also wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the diplomatic service. As a preliminary, she enrolled in Tokyo University’s law department.
“Kudo Yukie was a fellow student there and used to meet her regularly for tea. “Masako was her father’s girl,” she told me. “She was brought up to be the boy of the family. She really wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps...” Ms. Kudo remembers Masako as being superficially very Americanized but unexpectedly modest and Japanese under the surface.
“When the prince met Masako, he was 26 and embarking on the all-important task of finding a wife. [A] party had been arranged on his behalf to celebrate the visit of Princess Elena of Spain; but it was also a way of enabling him to meet a selection of eligivle young women. Forty had been invited, among them Masako. After the party, royal watchers noted that she was invited to the palace several more times, a sure sign that she was the favored candidate. But she had just embarked on a professional career. Entering the imperial family was not part of her life’s plan.
In 1988 the Foreign Ministry posted Masako to Oxford to do a postgraduate degree in international relations. It was to be several years before she saw the prince again. The Japanese tabloids, however, followed her there. Television footage of the time shows her striding along in a gray trench coat, in no nonsense low-heeled shoes, brushing through the paparazzi who swarm around her. Says one royal-watcher who was part of the pack, “She was like a Westerner; she said what she thought. When we tried to take her picture, she said, ‘What paper are you from? Show me your credentials! I refuse permission!’ Once she told someone he was a cockroach. That was an extraordinary way for a Japanese woman to behave.”
After his father became emperor in 1989, Naruhito was next in line to the throne. But he had still not found a wife. He finally confessed his problem. He was already in love - with Owada Masako. [The Imperial Household Agency] approached her father and in October 1992 Masako was invited to an imperial duck hunt. Months passed. There were more meetings, including several where the two were able to be alone togeher. Three times the Imperial Household Agency set a deadline for Masako’s reply. Three times she asked for an extension. Finally, she decided to accept.
The magic moment, as Masako revealed at a press confrerence to announce the engagement, was when the prince told her, “ I know that you must have all sorts of worries about entering the imperial family. I promise to protect you with all my power as long as I live.” He also assured her that as crown princess she would still be ea diplomat, at the very highest level; for her job would involve meeting dignitaries from all over the world.
The couple married on June 9, 1993. Then the sleeveless, white-brocade Hanae Mori wedding gown with its plunging neckline and matching petal-design jacket was stored carefully away, along with the diamond tiara and necklace. The international VIP’s paid their respects and left. And Masako began to discover what her new life was really going to be like.
“Masako...has had to go through a lengthy training. When the engagement was first announced, royal watchers noticed that she made mistakes. She waslked in front of the prince, expressed her own opinions and even dared make jokes. On one occasion she was seated at a banquet between then-presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. She chatted to Clinton in fluent English and to Yeltsin in Russian. Western observers may have been impressed; but royal watchers knew that she was letting herself in for trouble. ‘The royal family are not ambassadors,’ says a veteran member of the royal press corps. ‘that’s not their job. She doesn’t need to be able to speak English, she has interpreters for that. Her job is to smile.’
“Tim Olewine was one of her English tutors when she joined the foreign ministry in Tokyo. ‘I was very sad when I heard about her marriage,’ he says. ‘She was very down-to-earth - smart, vivacious, outgoing. You look at her now - three steps behind, no personality; sacrificed for her country.’ Professor Adam Roberts, her tutor at Ablliol College, Oxford, is one of the few to have met her in recent years. He disagrees with this gloomy prognosis. ‘She’s a very bright, very intelligent woman...and, she’s the same person now as she was.’ She has, Professor Roberts asserts, simply retreated behind a screen of formality. In private, she is as bright and lively as ever. How will she choose to bring up her child, having had such a liberal and cosmopoitan education herself?
“Perhaps Masako’s silence is not simply due to the heavy hand of the Imperial Household Agency. Maybe she is playing a waiting game. No doubt, being a clever woman, she realizes that as a junior member of the imperial family - in the weak position of daughter-in-law to the emperor and empress - she has little power. But when Naruhito finally succeeds to the throne and she becomes empress, it seems likely that the pair will want to make substantial changes in the imperial institution.
“Generation by generation, the imperial fmaily is inexorably changing. Many Japanese say they want a warmer, more human monarchy. Many expected that Masako would be the one to bring the monarchy closer to the people. Maybe in the future she will be able to do so.”
Post Script: On December 1, 2001, Princess Masako gave birth to a baby girl, Princess Aiko. The much-anticipated birth has sparked a debate over whether or not the newborn should be second in line after her father to the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy. Since 1889, when the Imperial Family Law was passed, only male heirs have been permitted on the throne.
There is widespread support among Japanese citizens to change the law, but perhaps the most influential voice of support comes from within the Imperial household - the commentary of 90-year-old Princess Takamatsu, the oldest member of the family, was quoted in Fujin Koron women’s magazine: “In the past, female members of the Imperial family have held the role of emperor,” she wrote. “If we thus take a lesson from the long history of the Japanese, [we will see that] a female emperor is not by any means an unnatural occurrence. This is my very humble opinion.” Reading Room
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