Crown Princess Masako

	Crown Princess (born: Masako Owada) Date of Birth: December 9 1963 Birthplace: Tokyo, Tokyo Pref.
	Photo © 2000 Kjeld Duits

Born Masako Owada, the daughter of a diplomat, Crown Princess Masako is the second commoner into the Japanese imperial household. (Her mother-in-law Princess Michiko was the first).

Due to her father's postings, Masako attended kindergarten in Moscow, elementary school in New York and Tokyo, and secondary school in Tokyo and Boston. She graduated from Harvard University in 1985 and later attended the University of Tokyo where she did graduate work at the Faculty of Law. In April 1987 she started a career in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

While with the foreign service, she started studying at Balliol College, Oxford University. In 1990 she returned to Japan and started in the Second North America Division, North American Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She continued working here until her marriage.

On 9 June 1993 she married Crown Prince Naruhito, her main duty being the production of a male heir to the Chrystanthemum Throne. Between 593 and 1771 Japan counted eight Empresses among its rulers, but since 1889 succession is legally limited to males. A long-awaited pregnancy ended in miscarriage in 1999. In May of 2001 the Imperial Household announced that she was again pregnant. Delivery was expected in November.

Due to her background as a 'career woman', still a rare occurence in Japan, there were high expectations for Masako modernizing the role of Crown Princess. This has not happened. On the contrary, over the years it has become clear that Masako is actually extremely conservative.

She is definitely not the free-thinker that many journalists and members of the public think she is. In an interview with Gale Eisenstodt, formerly the Tokyo bureau chief for Forbes magazine, Grand Chamberlain Makoto Watanabe was quoted as saying: "The media created an overblown image of Princess Masako as the young, aggressive career woman. She's very intelligent, but she is also more of a follower." Even her orthodox clothes apparently are her own choice. A fellow student of her Oxford days called Masako "very much the traditional Japanese woman, unlikely to take initiative or stick her neck out."

This has not made her adaption to the strict rules of the Japanese Imperial Court any easier. At her first solo press conference in 1996 she alluded to the conflict between ancient palace ways and herself: "At times I experience hardship in trying to find the proper point of balance between traditional things and my own personality.''

Hobbies: tennis, hiking, skiing, music
Languages spoken: English, German, French

buy at Amazon	RECOMMENDED READING
	Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan ($12.50) by Herbert P. Bix.

Information for Web Masters and Image Researchers

This image is from a large selection of photographs of Japan and the Japanese. They are available for licensing.

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