Princess Masako (雅子, born December 9, 1963) is the Crown Princess of Japan.

Born Masako Owada, the daughter of Hisashi Owada, a senior diplomat, she has traveled the world with her parents since she was a child. She went to kindergarten in Moscow, attended Belmont High School in Belmont, Massachusetts, near Boston, and graduated from Harvard University. She became fluent in several languages and joined the Japanese foreign ministry. By all accounts, Masako is very intelligent and talented, and she might have gone far in a diplomatic career.

She married 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.

After a miscarriage, she gave birth to a girl Aiko on December 1, 2001. Princess Aiko's birth stimulated public debate on changing Japan's imperial succession law to add royal daughters.

On December 9, 2004, the Princess announced that she hoped to return to her official duties soon. She has been absent from many of these duties for 13 months, due to what the family has called "stress-induced illness." It has been widely speculated that the pressure to produce a male heir has put heavy stress on the 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 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.

External links

• http://www.who2.com/princessmasako.html Who2 profile (http://www.who2.com/princessmasako.html)
• http://ikjeld.com/files/biographies/princess_masako.html profile at kjeld.com (http://ikjeld.com/files/biographies/princess_masako.html)
• Princess trapped by palace guard (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3939179.stm)
• News archive (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/asia-pacific/584125.stm)