Japan’s new imperial couple face heavy burden of tradition
TOKYO: Japan’s incoming emperor Crown Prince Naruhito faces the delicate task of balancing tradition within the world’s oldest monarchy and his own modern values, including protecting his family from the palace’s rigid rules.
The 59-year-old heir has not been shy about criticising the sometimes stifling lifestyle imposed on royals, particularly as his wife Masako has struggled to adapt to imperial life.
And like his popular father Akihito, he has warned of the need to remember World War II ‘correctly,’ without downplaying Japan’s early 20th-century militarism.
Born on Feb 23, 1960, Naruhito was the first Japanese prince to grow up under the same roof as his parents and siblings – royal children were previously raised by nannies and teachers.
He studied for two years at Oxford University in the 1980s after graduating with a history degree in Japan, and reportedly adorned his residence with a poster of American actress Brooke Shields.
In Britain, he was able to shed some of the strictures of royal life in Japan, mingling with other students as well as the British royal family, and he has spoken fondly of that period.
In 1993, he wed Masako Owada, who will become empress when Naruhito assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne in May.
The daughter of a diplomatic family and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Masako left behind a promising diplomatic career of her own to marry into the royal family.
Naruhito promised to ‘protect her at any cost’ as she made the transition, and Masako explained she had sacrificed her career to ‘make myself useful in this new path.’ But she struggled to adjust to cloistered life inside the family, punctuated by occasional and highly choreographed public appearances.
She also came under enormous pressure to bear a son because Japan’s imperial succession excludes women. This scrutiny only intensified after she gave birth to her daughter Princess Aiko in 2001 – the couple’s only child.
In 2004, Naruhito accused palace minders of stifling his wife’s personality, in unprecedented public remarks.
“To me, Masako seems worn out in her efforts to adjust herself to life as a royal over the past 10 years... It is also true that there was something that amounted to a denial of Masako’s former career,” he said.
He described Masako as ‘anguished that she was hardly allowed to visit foreign countries although she left her job as a diplomat.’
The same year, the palace disclosed that Masako had been undergoing treatment for stressinduced ‘adjustment disorder’ for almost her entire marriage.
Naruhito later apologised for his remarks, but he has called for ‘new royal duties’ to fit modern times. — AFP