Crown Princess Masako with The Crown Prince Naruhito

Her Imperial Highness The Crown Princess Masako (雅子), Kōtaishi-hi denka (皇太子妃殿下), (December 9 1963, Tokyo, Japan-) is the Crown Princess of Japan.

Born Masako Owada (小和田 雅子 Owada Masako), the eldest daughter of Hisashi Owada, a senior diplomat, she traveled the world with her parents from childhood. She went to kindergarten in Moscow, attended Belmont High School in Belmont, Massachusetts, near Boston, and graduated from Harvard University in 1985 with a degree in economics. Afterwards she went to study Oxford University for 2 years from 1988 to 1990. She became fluent over 5 languages, Russian, Japanese, English, French and German. Joined the Japanese foreign ministry. Where Masako met USSR Premiers. Masako was noted to have taken part of, as a translator in negotiations with the United States over superconductors.

By all accounts, Masako is very intelligent and talented, and she might have gone far in a diplomatic career.

Refusing Prince Naruhito initially, Masako eventually was convinced into marriage. She married His Imperial Highness The Crown Prince Naruhito, the Crown Prince of Japan, on June 9 1993, much to the public's delight. However, many younger Japanese women felt conflict when Masako gave up her career in order to marry the Crown Prince, thereby accepting the many restrictions imposed by life in the Imperial Court, thanks to the powerful and highly conservative Imperial Household Agency. For the elder Japanese however, it was the highest diplomatic post avaliable in Japan, was seen by some in Osaka as the best possible lifelong promotion for Princess Masako. As diplomats may be retired after a certain age.

After a miscarriage, she gave birth to a girl, Her Imperial Highness The Princess Aiko, on December 1 2001. Princess Aiko's birth stimulated public debate on changing Japan's imperial succession law to add royal daughters, a commentary that has not ceased. For a nation where the railway system scheduels are timed to the second, where perfectionism, and orderly conduct are held in high regarded. This loss of schedueling over the a male heir has created a great deal of anxiety, and uncertainity in Japan.

On December 9, 2004, the Princess announced that she hoped to return to her official duties soon but this has not occurred. She has been absent from many of these duties for more than 13 months, due to what the family has called "stress-induced illness." Her husband has made pointed and controversial comments about incourtesies and other pressures placed on his wife since their marriage by the Imperial Household Agency; observers have indicated that Masako, like her mother-in-law in the 1960s, may have suffered a nervous breakdown.

It has been widely speculated that the insistent pressure to produce a male heir has put heavy stress on the Crown Princess. In January 2005 the Japanese government announced that they would consider allowing the Crown Prince and Princess to adopt a male child, in order to avoid the possible heir crisis. The child would be adopted from former royal members who lost their imperial titles after World War II. A government-appointed panel of experts is expected to submit a report later in 2005 regarding the feasibility of this plan. Many members of the Japanese public, however, have indicated that they would happily accept the possibility of Princess Aiko ascending the throne as empress and view allowing the continuance of male primogeniture as a retrograde step.

External links

• http://www.who2.com/princessmasako.html Who2 profile
• http://ikjeld.com/files/biographies/princess_masako.html profile at kjeld.com
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