A Bulgarian parliamentary delegation headed by National Assembly Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva will pay an official visit to Japan between 8 and 12 April 2012. Tomorrow, Tsetska Tsacheva is to have an audience with Crown Prince Naruhito. (
Source)
On April 11th – 13th Bahraini ruler King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa will visit Japan at the invitation of Emperor Akihito. (
Source) Although the Bahraini court said in a statement that "The King will explore ways of promoting bilateral relations with Japan's Emperor, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and a number of Japanese officials," I think (I hope
) Prince Naruhito will meet the king, on behalf of the emperor.
On Friday, the head of the Crown Prince's Household adressed the state of Crown Princess Masako's health, quoting a statement released by her medical team.
The crown princess is ''in a situation where her health conditions can easily worsen due to accumulated fatigue,'' said the statement released by grand master Kyoji Komachi. [...] But Komachi also said, ''It does not mean that the crown princess' conditions are getting worse. I would like people to warmly watch the crown princess.''
House of Japan
Her medical team said the Crown Princess should take sufficient rest before slowly expanding her activities beyond private affairs. Komachi released the statement after telling a news conference last month that the Crown Princess' health is unstable, stirring a media controversy due mainly to a lack of detail.
Japan Times
It is no news that the princess is still not well.
Otherwise we would have been seeing more of her lately. And while we should probably feel grateful that they care to say anything at all, it really seems to me that they should consult an expert on communication concerning the way they handle their public statements. I am not surprised that "a lack of detail" would have caused a media controversy last month but I do not understand how this latest statement could in any way help matters. I am sure that those who have been closely watching events during the last years would be enabled by now to write that sort of statement themselves. It is ALWAYS saying that the princess is working to regain her health and needs more time.
I, for one, do not doubt in the least that she is working to regain her health as from time to time there is sort of a "surprise appearance" of hers, like last year, during the emperor´s hospital stay, when she joined her husband on an official engagement or when she attended the family´s New Year luncheon last minute. This year she accompanied her husband on his visit to his hospitalized father while last year she had been criticized for not having visited her father-in-law in hospital. But it seems that this has been as much as she is presently capable of. From the outside, I receive the impression that those efforts rather serve to exhaust her than to fill her with new self confidence and courage.
But maybe I expect too much of the doctors if I want them to explain things in a way that I can understand. A dear friend of mine was battling depression as a young woman and had a severe relapse two and a half years ago. There was a trigger for it (her husband had a minor accident) but nothing that would have actually been sufficient to explain the extremity of her emotions, let alone that she would not get better for nearly two years. Only recently, since last autumn, she has gradually been coming back to herself, for no special reason it seems. (She has been receiving treatment and such but she had that before and it did not seem to have much effect - as far as I could notice, at least.) At present, she feels brilliant and is full of self confidence. Amazing.
But obviously impossible to explain to someone who is not a doctor (including myself). As her friend, I feel relieved
but also puzzled.