Last month, The Times reported what has been an open secret for months — that rather than suffering from stress and physical illness, as the official version has it, Princess Masako is being treated for depression. She has made no public appearances since last December when she was reported to be suffering from shingles. She has since been on a lengthy retreat to the mountain town of Karuizawa, with her mother and only child, two-year-old Princess Aiko, but without her husband.
Coverage of the Imperial Family is restricted to a small pool of reporters from the main Japanese newspapers and TV stations, which report only what is authorised by the household agency. Yesterday, despite a new policy of allowing registered foreign journalists into news conferences by government agencies, The Times was refused admission to the gathering where the Crown Prince’s statement was released.
In this information void, wild rumours flourish. They include talk of the Prince and the Princess being estranged and of Princess Aiko suffering from autism. But the Crown Prince’s remarks yesterday set out the most credible reasons for Masako’s distress: the extraordinary difficulties of imperial life for a highly educated, cosmopolitan woman.
“From the bottom of her heart, Masako wishes to return to her official duties after mentally and physically recovering her original good health,” he said. “Various measures and ideas are necessary. Henceforth, I want to talk to the Imperial Household Agency about this.”
Until her marriage in 1993, the Princess was a career diplomat in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, with an international upbringing and qualifications from Tokyo, Harvard and Oxford universities.
The household agency has other priorities, above all the propagation of the Imperial Family. After several years without a pregnancy and one miscarriage, Princess Aiko was born following fertility treatment in 2001. But the couple show no sign of producing a son, and only a male heir can succeed to the 2,000-year-old Chrysanthemum Throne.
The man many blame for the Crown Princess’s unhappiness is the agency’s Grand Steward, Mr Yuasa, who delivered the statement.
“I apologise for causing anxiety for the Emperor and Empress, other members of the Imperial Household and the public,” he said. But he conspicuously failed to make any promises about changes to the Princess’s regime.
