By Rosie Kusunoki Jones
Many little girls dream of being a princess. But Japan’s eight-year-old Princess Aiko’s fairytale existence seems troubled by problems at school. And one that suggests echoes of her mother, Crown Princess Masako, who since 2002 has largely disappeared from public life and is said to be suffering from an emotional disorder.
- Doubleday
- Front cover of “The Commoner” by critically acclaimed novelist John Burnham Schwartz
According to Japanese weeklies Shukan Shincho and Josei Seven, Aiko-sama may quit school in Japan to attend a boarding school in either Switzerland or Australia. Those reports come after widespread coverage in mainstream Japanese media earlier this year of the princess allegedly suffering bullying at her current school in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and suffering from anxiety.
The Imperial Household Agency declined to comment on matters regarding Pricness Aiko.
But if extreme, the scenario of her having to study overseas is coincidentally loosely predicted in the 2008 novel “The Commoner” by John Burnham Schwartz. In the work of fiction, the author imagines a Crown Princess “Keiko” having to leave Japan to escape her tormentors.
The author expressed his regret to hear of Princess Aiko’s struggles over the last year in a email to JRT: “Although I do not personally know her, her mother or grandmother, having spent several years writing ‘The Commoner’ I feel as though I have some connection, however imagined, to their happiness and well being.”
According to Japanese media, Princess Aiko started to miss school in early March. She failed to attend the opening ceremony of the new academic year on April 9 but has since returned to school, although her attendance remains erratic and she is often accompanied by her mother, reports say. More unusually she was recently escorted to school by her father, Crown Prince Naruhito.
Mr. Schwartz, also author of the critically acclaimed “Reservation Road” which became a bestseller and later a motion picture starring Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly, fuses the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction in “The Commoner”. On his web site, Mr. Schwarts says, “The idea for ‘The Commoner’ grew…out of my interest in the Japanese Imperial Family”.
Although the names of the Empress and Crown Princess differ, there is a factual synergy between the novel’s protagonists, Haruko and Keiko, and the current Empress, Michiko-sama and Crown Princess Masako. While the film rights to “The Commoner” are yet to be sold, Mr. Schwartz says he has “long thought that a very good film might one day be made from the novel”.
It tells the story of how Haruko marries into the Japanese Imperial family and is exposed to such intense palace pressure and public scrutiny that she spirals into a devastating depression where she loses her voice. In 1961 after the birth of Crown Prince Naruhito, real-life Empress Michicko also suffered a nervous breakdown according to local reports and lost her voice for seven months.
In the novel, Haruko’s son chooses to marry another commoner, Keiko, who has a promising diplomatic career (as did real-life Crown Princess Masako). But as the strains of the Imperial Court begin to also take their toll on fictional Princess Keiko’s mental health, the novel’s Empress Haruko takes action and helps her escape.
While the current real-life Empress Michiko may have failed to rescue Masako-sama, overseas schooling might alleviate pressure on the young Princess Aiko. And she’s not the first of the Imperial family to study abroad either; most recently her first cousin, 18-year-old Princess Mako is attending University in Dublin over the summer.
Many of Japanese are not interested in Masako.
Hisashi Owada (father of Masako) was disliked by the colleague of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The friend of Masako was few from being in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
There is a rumor that Aiko is slight autism.
Married couple’s of Naruhito and Masako figures are bad. Oppositely, married couple’s of Fumihito and Kiko figures are good.
There is a rumor that Naruhito has a strong rivalry in Fumihito that is the figure and better than I.
The Europe and America people sets up like Masako AungSanSuuKyi, and the plan of the Europe and America people puppet ..Japanese imperial household.. doesn’t succeed. Because Masako is ability shortage as Europe and America people’s puppet person.
It says in the so much because there is a person whom it and a lot of people have misunderstood. Many of women who are marrying imperial household in Japan are civilians now. Michiko, Masako, Kiko, and Hisako are civilians. However, it is thought that the relation of Michiko empress and Masako is estranged. It doesn’t get along well two people still though it the private organization comes from. In a word, sympathy doesn’t gather from such a factor in Masako.
It is very sad that Crown Princess Masako has had to endure the “royal life” in Tokyo, and equally sad that her daugher is under siege. I applaud Crown Prince Naruhito’s valiant attempts to defend his wife. I believe it is likely that “the court” in Tokyo has no idea how the rest of the world regards the truly sad situation the Royal Family is in. And, even it they did, they would dismiss it. There are worthy lives being sacrificed here. To what end? To keep those “in power” in power. Everyone knows that.
Unfortunately in the real life version of this story, the crown princess will not be let out of her golden prison so only the young girl will get away
Unfortunately in the real life version of this story, the crown princess will not be let out of her goldan prison so only the young girl will get away.