Empress Masako of Japan: Full of talent but a life full of tears

Referring to Empress Masako of Japan, most of the people of this country express an admiration and reverence for an accomplished and talented royal member. But in order to earn the respect today, Empress Masako had to go through a difficult time...

Masako is the second female commoner, after her mother-in-law (former Empress Emerita Michiko), to marry a member of the Japanese royal family. However, her time in the palace was never a good one for her. Masako has always struggled to adapt to the rigid ideologies of one of the world's oldest monarchies.

Masako Owada was born at Toranomon Hospital in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. She is the eldest daughter of Mr. Owada Hisashi, a judge of the International Court of Justice, a former official of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Egashira Yumiko, who worked as the secretary general of Air France Far East before their marriage. . After his birth, Masako and his family resided in Sakurajsui, Setagaya, Tokyo under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Masako was a global citizen before even going to school. Due to the demands of his father's work, Masako spent his childhood in Moscow and New York before returning to Tokyo. She then attended elementary, middle and high school at Futaba Catholic Girls' School, Denenchofu, Tokyo.

In 1979, the Masako family returned to the United States again, after her father was sent to the Japanese Embassy in Washington, and was invited to Harvard as a visiting professor of International Law.

Masako is the second female commoner, after her mother-in-law (former Empress Emerita Michiko), to marry a member of the Japanese royal family.

After graduating from high school in the United States, the Empress went on to major in international economics at Harvard and then attended the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Law, to study politics before passing the entrance exam of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. delivered, Japan in 1986.

In 1988, she was given the role of an apprentice diplomat in the United Kingdom in the Japanese Embassy in London and studied at Oxford El Balliol University for two years.

Due to her fluency in three languages: English, French and German, the Empress was allowed to participate in negotiations to resolve the commercial dispute between Japan and the United States, after returning to Japan.

The empress is also known to be good at softball, skiing and tennis.

She first met Crown Prince Naruhito in October 1986, at a party to welcome Princess Elena of Spain on her visit to Japan. At that moment, the Crown Prince fell in love with Masako. After 6 years of pursuing with two rejections, finally, on the third marriage proposal, December 1992, Masako accepted Naruhito's invitation.

The reason Masako agreed was because the Crown Prince had honestly shared his concerns with her. The Crown Prince initially promised to protect Masako with all his might for the rest of his life. But this time, the Crown Prince wondered if he should propose to her again or not. Because he was afraid that he could not fulfill the promise he made to her in the past.

The couple's engagement took place officially in January 1993 and then married in June of the same year. Some 190,000 people looked forward to welcoming the newlyweds during a parade in downtown Tokyo. Because for much of the general public, she would be the one with the potential to break with the 2,600-year-old tradition of the royal family.

Over the next several decades, however, the restrictive traditions and overwhelming expectations of the royal family brought her to the brink of collapse. Her royal life was never completely happy, due to pressure from court life rules and having to give birth to a male son (she only gave birth to Prince Aiko). Since December 2003, she has been unable to continue participating in diplomatic activities as a Crown Princess, despite being protected and loved by the Crown Prince by her side.

After giving birth to her first daughter, Masako continued to face pressure from the royal family when she was forced to give birth to a son. And she has been receiving treatment for physical and mental illnesses since 2003.

In 2004, the Royal Family revealed she had been diagnosed with adjustment disorder, a mental illness linked to depression or prolonged stress. As a result, Masako is often absent from important events and is unable to fulfill his responsibilities.

Two months before that announcement, then Crown Prince Naruhito honestly shared in a press conference that it was the pressure from the Imperial family and the suffering of being banned from going abroad that made Empress Masako exhausted. .

However, in the last few years, the Empress has gradually returned to her activities. This includes visiting children in welfare facilities and learning about methods of using animals to treat sick children.

"I want to devote my energy and time to the happiness of all Japanese people. So I myself am trying my best to achieve that. I am glad that I am able to become more and more able to achieve that. accomplish more tasks," she said on her birthday last December.

At the same time, Masako also said that he understands the pain of mentally ill children. Because she herself has suffered through a long struggle with adjustment disorder.

Below is a list of major events in the life of Empress Masako.

- December 9, 1963: The day Empress Masako was born.

- September 1981: She entered Harvard University.

- June 1985: Graduated from Harvard University.

- April 1986: She studied at the University of Tokyo.

- October 18, 1986: Prince Naruhito and Masako Owada meet for the first time at a reception to welcome Princess Elena of Spain.

- April 1987: She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

- July 1988: She moved to England to study at Oxford University, Balliol College.

- August 1992: Crown Prince Naruhito, Masako Owada meet again at the home of former diplomat Kensuke Yanagiya.

- October 3, 1992: Crown Prince Naruhito first proposed to Masako Owada at the Shinhama Imperial Wild Duck Sanctuary in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.

- December 12, 1992: She accepted Crown Prince Naruhito's marriage proposal.

- June 9, 1993: She and Crown Prince Naruhito married.

- November 1994: The couple visits Middle Eastern countries on their first official overseas trip.

- December 1, 2001: Masako's daughter, Princess Aiko, is born.

- March 11, 2011: A devastating earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan, causing the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. The couple visited affected people at evacuation centers in the following months.

- June 9, 2018: Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

- May 1, 2019: Masako officially became Empress.

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