picture from Yahoo! News

Although she is better known for her love for gardening and pottery, Princess Aiko proved to be a promising sportswomen-in-making yesterday, after helping her team win a relay race.

As the last member of her team crossed the finish line well ahead of the others, Aiko and the other members of her team run into the field to celebrate their victory. Aiko was a key factor in the victory: she was running second to last and managed to gain a considerable lead, which secured the eventual victory.

picture from Yahoo! News

The relay contest is an annual event of the Autumn Athletic Festival at the Gakushuin school, where Aiko is a student.

Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako were on hand for their daughter’s big day: seated next to other students’ parents, they couldn’t hide their wide smiles as Aiko confidentially crossed the finish line.

For more pictures and information, visit this thread.

Marsel Japanese Royals Prince Naruhito, Princess Aiko, Princess Masako, Sport

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At the request of Tokyo’s Governor Shintaro Ishihara, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has asked Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, to represent Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. (See also this post.) He has invited them to accompany Tokyo’s bid officials to Copenhagen where the vote on the host for the 2016 Olympic Games will take place on October 2. In the past, the support of heads of state, like Tony Blair for London 2012 or Vladimir Putin for Sochi 2014, has played an important role in bringing the Olympic Games home to their cities. Accordingly, Tokyo’s rivals for the Olympics 2016, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, are rumoured to have asked their respective heads of state to attend. This is why Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, the head of the Olympic bid committee, has deemed it “absolutely necessary to solicit kind help from the imperial family for the benefit of the Japanese people and for the history of Japan.” Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Denmark, Environment, IOC, Olympics, Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako

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 Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan met his future bride Masako Owada first on October 18, 1986. A party had been arranged to celebrate the visit of Princess Elena of Spain; but it was also a way of enabling the heir to the throne to meet a selection of forty eligible young women, among them Masako. The prince was immediately smitten: Masako, a charming, attractive and intelligent Harvard-graduate, had only recently passed the Foreign Ministry entrance exam (as one of only five per cent of those to pass the test that year). She seemed to incorporate everything that he had always wanted from his future partner.

Click here to see the photo at ANP

After the prince had in 1985 come back from his studies in Oxford, he had told a press conference: “My ideal partner should have the ability to boldly speak her mind. Another wish is that she should know a foreign language to a certain degree because we will often meet with foreigners.” The court journalists were a bit at a loss to imagine a Japanese woman matching this picture. But it was known that the prince had a penchant for American actress Brooke Shields whom he enthusiastically praised: “She says things in a clear, fearless way.” (Only to add, with a sad smile: “But, of course, I cannot marry a foreigner…”) Now, he finally seemed to have met a Japanese woman whom he was able to truly love and admire. Masako’s strong-willed nature was combined with a natural knack for diplomacy. “She has the wisdom to adapt herself to any environment,” a classmate said about her. Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako, Wedding Anniversary

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 Tokyo’s Olympic bid committee will be soliciting help from Japan’s imperial royal family for its bid campaign that was launched last month by Prime Minister Taro Aso. The final decision about the Olympic host 2016 will be taken by the International Olympic Committee on October 2nd. Tokyo’s committee will make a formal request through the government for Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako to present the city’s bid on the day before.

The request of the Tokyo committee for support from the imperial family has been rendered necessary as rival cities can boast high profile public figures representing their case, including Barack Obama for Chicago and King Juan Carlos for Madrid. Within this context, Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako are probably the very members of the imperial family whose help might increase Tokyo´s chances the most. Ivan Hall, a former professor at the law faculty of Gakushuin University, has once said about the couple: “They are among the more open-minded, liberal people in the country today because of their education and the time they came to intellectual maturity. They represent a monarchy that the whole world can be comfortable with.” Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Olympics, Prince Naruhito, Princess Aiko, Princess Masako

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Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko are presently on a two-week goodwill tour of Europe that began in Austria and took them in the following to Bulgaria and Hungary. The fourth and last leg of their journey is going to be Romania. The visits are taking place in order to celebrate the 140th year of Japanese diplomatic ties with Austria and Hungary and the 50th year since Tokyo resumed formal relations with Bulgaria and Romania.

Last Thursday the couple was welcomed by Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov and his wife Zorka at the Presidential Palace in Sofia. On Friday, the prince and Parvanov were to open a replica of a famous Thracian tomb, funded by the Japanese government. On the royal programme were also visits to the golden-domed Alexander Nevski cathedral in Sofia and the Boyana Church, a UNESCO World Heritage site. At 18th secondary school “William Gladstone” as well as at Sofia University the prince and princess met with pupils, students and lecturers in Japanese studies.

On Saturday, the royal couple were received by Bulgaria’s former king and premier Simeon Saxe Coburg and his wife Margarita (Article) before they travelled on to Hungary where they visited an exhibition of Japanese design in Budapest’s Museum of Applied Arts. (Article) They went to see the Budapest Zoo and the Hungarian Museum of Agriculture on the following day. On Monday they met with Hungary´s President Laszlo Solyom who discussed environmental issues with his guests before presenting them with presents of a Herend porcelain bird and a zither.

Yesterday, Prince and Princess Akishino arrived on the fourth leg of their tour, in Romania, where they were scheduled to visit the Japanese School before meeting with Romanian President Traian Basescu and his wife Maria today at Cotroceni Palace in Romania´s capital Bucharest. (Article) Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Bulgaria, Hungary, Official Visit, Prince Akishino, Princess Kiko, Princess Masako, Romania, Succession

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 During a state visit of Singapore president S. R. Nathan to Japan, the Singapore leader and his wife were hosted by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at a state banquet on Monday. In his welcome speech, the emperor remembered that during his first visit to Singapore in 1970, he and his wife (who were still crown prince and crown princess at the time) had planted seedlings of the Japanese cycad in the Jurong industrial estate. On the couple´s most recent visit to Singapore, in 2006, they were delighted to behold that those very seedlings had become well grown trees in the Japanese Garden.

Mr Nathan, in his turn, stressed the importance of exchange agreements between the universities in the two countries. This is in a line with the very open and positive view that the president took towards all possible forms of cultural exchange in his speech at a lunchtime reception for some 450 Singaporeans living in Japan on Sunday. He said that the diversity of experiences, knowledge and networks acquired by the increasing number of Singaporeans living overseas would “add to the rich fabric of our nation when they return home”. (Article)

The welcome ceremony for the Singapore President was also attended by Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako. The latter has now entered her sixth year of convalescence from a stress-induced illness that has raised worlwide public interest and has led to discussions about the life quality of Japanese royals, and, especially, of Japanese crown princesses. (Princess Masako´s mother-in-law, Empress Michiko, suffered a nervous breakdown a few years after her marriage.) However, of late, the number of Princess Masako´s appearances in public has remarkably increased, a fact that may well strengthen hopes for the former career diplomat´s full recovery.

Read more about the Singapore state visit in this TRF thread.
Read more about the current events of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako in this TRF thread.

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, President Nathan, Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako, Singapore, State Visit

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On May 10, 2004, Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan was scheduled for a news conference. Nobody expected anything spectacular or even especially interesting from this event. All public relations of the imperial family members are organized by the Imperial Household Agency (IHA) which sets up news conferences only on certain occasions, the most frequent being birthdays and visits of the royals to foreign countries. The journalists who are invited to attend – usually from a carefully selected pool of “court journalists” – ought to submit the questions they are intending to ask weeks in advance to the IHA officials on duty, for approval. The answers that the imperial prince or princess will give are also written down for them by the IHA before the news conference starts. All very well organized, no surprises involved for anybody, the worst thing one could say: that all this might be a little bit boring…

Click here to see the photo at ANP beeldbank

In May 2004, the crown prince was planning a trip to Europe where he was going to attend the royal weddings in Denmark and Spain. It was to be supposed that, on the obligatory press conference, he would discuss the trip’s schedule, make a few remarks concerning the friendly relations to the other royal families and maybe mention what everybody knew already: that his wife, Crown Princess Masako, was not so far recovered yet from her bout with shingles in December 2003 as to be able to accompany him. But his audience was going to be surprised… Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Imperial Household Agency, Press Conference, Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako, Scandal

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 Last weekend, on a trip to the imperial ranch outside Tokyo, Princess Aiko, only daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako of Japan, happily showed her new puppy, Yuri, to the public. Princess Aiko entered the second grade at Gakushuin Primary School this April.
Sometime this year, Mari, one of the two dogs of the crown prince´s family, died. The dogs Mari and Pippi had already been living for many years with the crown couple, before Aiko was even born. In 1995, a stray dog had been found on the grounds of the Togu Palace where the family lives: the mother of Pippi and Mari. The childless crown couple took care of the little puppies, as soon as they were born, and grew very fond of them. In summer 2003, when the crown princess was already fighting against a looming depression (at that time still unbeknownst to the public) she said that “living with our two dogs Pippi and Mari … has always calmed and rejuvenated my spirit.” The two dogs were treated just like beloved family members. Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Animals, Pets, Prince Naruhito, Princess Aiko, Princess Masako

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 Last Sunday, Crown Princess Masako of Japan, who has suffered stress-induced illness while struggling to adjust to royal life, made her first public appearance outside of Tokyo in about 15 months. The princess attended the 20th national “Midori no Aigo” green conservation event at the Yokohama Animal Forest Park, along with her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito. After an address of the crown prince on the importance of greenery in attempts to tackle global warming, he and the princess both planted cherry trees, in commemoration of the event. After that, the couple visited the park zoo and the Japan Guide Dog Association’s Kanagawa training center to watch guide dog training. Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako

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 Numerous events were scheduled to mark the golden wedding anniversary of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on April 10. There was the evening party, a private family dinner and visits with government officials. People formed a long line in front of the imperial palace on Friday morning to express their congratulations on the occasion of the wedding anniversary by signing their names in well-wishers books. And there was a palace tea party with 101 couples selected across the country who are marking their golden wedding anniversaries this year to which the emperor and empress were especially looking forward.

Click the image to see the photo at Belga

Among the activities celebrating the event there is also a photo exhibition at a department store in Tokyo. After the emperor and the empress themselves had visited it on April 15, Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife Masako went there on the next day. They seemed to enjoy themselves there so much that it is a pity that they had not taken their little daughter Aiko with them and had made use of the opportunity to chat with her about commoners becoming princesses by marriage – and princesses commoners…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, Exhibition, Prince Naruhito, Princess Masako, Wedding Anniversary