Her Imperial Highness Princess Sayako

 

Daughter of His Majesty The Emperor of Japan

 

18 April 1969                    Date of birth

Personal Appellation: Princess Nori (Nori-no-miya)

Personal Seal: Pond Lily (Nymphaea tetragona)

April 1973                         Entered the Kakinoki-zaka Kindergarten

April 1974                         Entered the Gakushuin Kindergarten

April 1976                          Entered Gakushuin Primary School

April 1982                          Entered Gakushuin Girls’ Junior High School

April 1985                          Entered Gakushuin Girls’ High School

April 1988                          Entered the Department of Japanese Language and Literature in the Faculty of Letters of Gakushuin University

18 April 1989                     Coming of age

March 1992                       Graduated from Department of Japanese Language and Literature in the Faculty of Letters of Gakushuin University

1992 to 1998                     Research assistant at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology (part-time)

1998 onwards                    Researcher at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology (part-time)

 

Overview of Her Imperial Highness’ Activities

Her Imperial Highness Princess Sayako began her official duties while still a student at the Gakushuin University, and since graduating from university she has fulfilled a variety of official duties, responding to requests from a range of areas, as an adult member of the Imperial Family.

 

At the Imperial Palace, Her Imperial Highness has attended many ceremonies and events. These include the utakai-hajime (Imperial New Year’s Poetry Reading), the kousho hajime (Imperial New Year’s Lectures), welcoming persons with outstanding achievements in academic, cultural and sporting fields to tea parties, and receiving guests, including State Guests, from overseas and ambassadors resident in Tokyo. In addition, at the Imperial Residence, Her Imperial Highness has joined discussons on academic and cultural themes and has received other invited guests, in addition to receiving ambassadors who are leaving their posts in Tokyo. In the fifteen years since coming of age, Her Imperial Highness has attended 740 events at the Imperial Palace and Imperial Residence.

 

Her Imperial Highness has also attended many ceremonies and events held within the Tokyo metropolitan area and further afield in the regions of Japan. To the extent that her schedule has allowed, Her Imperial Highness has attended each annual ceremony and event such as the Japan Volunteer Festival, the National Sports Meet, the National Children’s Debating Contest, the International Youth Assembly, commemorative events of the Girl Scouts, and the National Athletic Meet, and many of the events she has attended are ones to which she has gone to give encouragement to the participants, particularly to the younger ones. On 72 of such occasions Her Imperial Highness has delivered addresses. In addition, almost every year Her Imperial Highness has attended the events of welfare and charitable institutions such as Eye Mate and Save the Children Japan, and on occasions when she has traveled to the regions of Japan she has observed welfare and cultural facilities.

 

Since coming of age, Her Imperial Highness has performed official duties in the regions of Japan on 63 occasions, and has visited 37 of Japan’s prefectures. She has performed official duties within the Tokyo metropolitan area and neighboring prefectures on a total of 263 occasions.

 

In relations with foreign countries, Her Imperial Highness first traveled abroad privately in 1984, and since 1995, when she was still just 26 years old, Her Imperial Highness has traveled alone on eight occasions, making official visits to 14 countries (*note). On each of these visits, Her Imperial Highness has had the opportunity to meet with Heads of State and their spouses, and also with a wide range of people from the general populations of each country, and through displaying a profound understanding of the history, culture and society of each of the countries she has visited, Her Imperial Highness has fostered international goodwill. In connection with her visits to the countries concerned, Her Imperial Highness has served as the honorary president in Japan for a Bulgarian Culture Festival and a Czech Arts Festival, and attended events related to these two festivals that were held in Japan. Recently, in 2003, Her Imperial Highness paid an official visit to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and the Republic of Honduras, where she further improved the friendship and goodwill between Japan and those two countries. On many occasions during overseas visits Her Imperial Highness has delivered addresses. On visits to 14 countries, Her Imperial Highness has given a total of 37 addresses.

 

Her Imperial Highness’ Research

Since April 1992 Her Imperial Highness has worked twice a week at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, until 1998 as a part-time research assistant and from April 1998 as a researcher. Since 1986 on the Akasaka Estate and since 1993 after moving to the Imperial Palace, Her Imperial Highness has conducted monthly ornithological surveys. Recently, Her Imperial Highness has contributed jointly authored research reports to the Journal of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology and the Research Report of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, including “Breeding Status of the Kingfisher Genus Alcedo atthis in the Imperial Palace and Akasaka Estate” in October 2002, and “Ornithological Surveys in the Grounds of the Akasaka Estate (September 1986 to December 2001)” in September 2004. In addition, Her Imperial Highness jointly authored and contributed to a “Dictionary of Bird Species” (edited by Yamashina Institute for Ornithology) in February 2004.

 

Hobbies and Interests

Her Imperial Highness has a deep interest in the training of seeing-eye dogs, and attends charity concerts and speaks to people involved in the training of seeing-eye dogs. In addition, Her Imperial Highness began studying Japanese dance as an extracurricular activity at the Gakushuin Girls’ Junior High School, and she continues this interest to the present, appearing in a total of seven performances at the National Theatre to date. In September 2003, Her Imperial Highness appeared in Kikujido (Chrysanthemum Boy).

 

Since coming of age, Her Imperial Highness has every year never failed to contribute a poem to the Imperial New Year’s Poetry Reading, and also to compose a poem on the themes designated by His Majesty The Emperor at the beginning of each year, for Their Majesties’ birthdays, Culture Day and every month.

 

 

(*Note)

Official Overseas Visits and Major Events

 

1995   Federative Republic of Brazil             100th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-Brazil Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation

1996      Republic of Bulgaria                          Opening events for Japan Culture Month

              Czech Republic                              

1997   French Republic                                 Opening ceremony of the Maison de la Culture du Japon (Japanese Culture Center)

1999   Republic of Peru                                 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Peru

       Republic of Bolivia                              100th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Bolivia

1999   Hawaii, USA                                      40th anniversary of the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation

Completion ceremony of the “Subaru” Telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

2000   Republic of Slovakia                           Opening ceremony for Japan Culture Week

       Republic of Slovenia

       Republic of Ireland

2002   Republic of Romania                           100th anniversary of exchange between Japan and Romania

       Republic of Croatia

2003   Oriental Republic of Uruguay              80th anniversary of Japan-Uruguay relations (2001)

       Republic of Honduras