Bullying flap shakes Japan's royals
When an official at the Imperial Household Agency suddenly announced last week that 8-year-old Princess Aiko was refusing to go to school because of bullying, he did more than just disclose a mundane problem facing a member of Japan's ancient and secretive monarchy.
He also added a new twist to one of the most riveting but mysterious dramas in Japan, the seven-year depression and seclusion of Aiko's mother, Crown Princess Masako, the Harvard-trained former diplomat. Aiko is the only child of Princess Masako and her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, and is widely known to be one of the few sources of joy for the troubled crown princess.
The incident has once again put Princess Masako's unhappy story into the harsh glare of Japan's tabloid press. The news media here portrayed her 1993 wedding as the fairy-tale marriage of a commoner to a prince, but then grew increasingly critical of her inability to bear a male heir for the Chrysanthemum Throne. The mounting pressure is widely seen as contributing to her apparent breakdown.
Since last week's announcement, Princess Masako, 46, has emerged to take her daughter to school and even to sit with Aiko in her second-grade classroom. Some commentators speculated whether her mother's problems had made Aiko overly sensitive or emotionally frail.
The question now is whether the report that her daughter was bullied will make Japanese more sympathetic to the princess's plight, or only add to the criticism of her. Some said Aiko's troubles may even feed growing calls by conservatives for her father, 50, to step aside as successor to his father, Emperor Akihito, 76.
(New York Times, Mar 12)
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