Masako (Empress)
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Empress Masako ( Japanese 皇后 雅子 , Kōgō Masako ; born December 9, 1963 in Tokyo , Japan as Masako Owada ( 小 和田 雅子 , Owada Masako )) is the wife of the Japanese Emperor Naruhito .
biography
Youth, training and career
Masako Owada is the eldest daughter of the diplomat and judge Hisashi Owada . From an early age, Masako traveled half the world with her parents. She attended kindergarten in Moscow , later from elementary school to the penultimate year of high school, the private school Denenchofu Futaba in Tokyo. She graduated from Belmont near Boston with a maximum grade of 1.0. She was also President of the National Honor Society .
In 1985 she graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in economics and was awarded magna cum laude . In 1986 she began a bachelor's degree in law at the University of Tokyo . As she spoke fluent English in addition to her specialist knowledge, the Japanese Foreign Ministry offered her a position shortly afterwards. She dropped out of law school in 1987 and joined the ministry. Between 1988 and 1990 she completed a Masters in International Relations at Balliol College at the University of Oxford on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs .
While working for the ministry, she met many important people in world politics. She also translated in the negotiations on superconductors between Japan and the United States.
Marriage and family
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Masako Owada, who comes from a former samurai family, met the Crown Prince on October 18, 1986 at a reception for the Spanish Princess Elena in the Akasaka Palace . Naruhito is said to have already said that evening: “They or none!” In the months that followed, he arranged several meetings with Masako, all of which took place in extremely conspiratorial fashion with friends or even in underground car parks. This went on for almost a year, until Masako's parents rejected an application on the grounds that Masako had only just started to work in the Foreign Ministry. The Imperial Court Office , for its part, had concerns because it was believed that Masako's maternal grandfather, Yutaka Egashira , as chairman of the Chisso chemical company , was involved in one of the biggest chemical environmental scandals in Japan in the 1960s, but this turned out to be wrong because he was the chairman only took over after the incident.
From the perspective of the traditionalists, Masako also violated a number of other criteria: At 1.61 meters, she is a few centimeters taller than the Crown Prince. She also appeared to some to be too confident to be a princess. On July 1, 1988, Masako went to Oxford to continue her career as a diplomat. In 1990 she returned to Japan and started working in the prestigious North America division of the State Department. Because of her high work ethic, she was referred to as a "hard worker Masako". In 1992, more than five years after the first meeting with Naruhito, the court bridal seekers reappeared at her place. It was only four months later that Masako's parents agreed to a new rendezvous. On October 3, Naruhito finally asked for her hand. Masako hesitated, but gave in when the Crown Prince offered her a diplomatic career.
Since other attempts to marry the Crown Prince had failed, the young diplomat and Japan's heir to the throne Naruhito finally got the official marriage license from the Imperial Court Office in May 1992. This finally announced the engagement on January 19, 1993.
The marriage was preceded by a health test, which primarily examined whether the future princess could give birth to the necessary heir to the throne. She also had to sign a declaration restricting her rights to the children and property of the imperial family in the event of a divorce.
On June 9, 1993, Masako and Naruhito said yes. The newlywed princess was then initiated into the details of the complicated life within the imperial family , which is mainly influenced by the conservative imperial court office.
After eight years of marriage and a miscarriage (1999), the long-awaited child Princess Aiko was born on December 1, 2001 . Despite this happy circumstance, Masako continued to have high expectations on the part of the Imperial Court Office to give birth to a son who could one day become heir to the throne. A depression , so the presumption, was the consequence, which was described by the court office as " adjustment disorders ". Her husband was then prompted to take the unusual step for the imperial family, to take her public protection. According to him, "she tried with great strength to adapt to the imperial family." In his opinion, that had completely exhausted her. He also spoke of "that there have been efforts to negate Masako's career and personality."
Her sister-in-law, Princess Kiko , wife of Akishino , Naruhito's younger brother, gave birth to their son, Prince Hisahito , on September 6, 2006 - after two daughters. He thus came third in line to the throne. With his birth, the expectation of Masako also decreased.
In November 2008 she appeared again in public for the first time in five years at the reception for the Spanish King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia .
empress
After Emperor Akihito indicated in a televised address that he wanted to abdicate in the near future, the Japanese government decided on December 8, 2017 after consulting the "Imperial Council" ( 皇室 会議 Kōshitsu Kaigi , consisting of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe , the president of the two chambers of the Parliament Tadamori Ōshima and Chūichi Date as well as Naruhito's uncle Prince Masahito of Hitachi and his wife Princess Hanako of Hitachi ) that Emperor Akihito will abdicate on April 30, 2019 and Naruhito will ascend the chrysanthemum throne the following day. Masako officially took over the office of Empress on May 1, 2019 at midnight local time . The Shinto enthronement ceremony ( 即位 の 礼 , Sokui no Rei ), at which Naruhito was appointed Tennō from a religious point of view, took place on October 22, 2019.
controversy
Taking into account the age of Masako at the birth of Princess Aiko and the problematic pregnancy, it was already unlikely at this point that further children would follow after the daughter. A female successor is not provided for in the law on the imperial household . There were no male offspring until Prince Hisahito's birth in 2006. The demand for equality between the sexes in the succession to the throne was made by the public; the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party is rather critical of this.
In international media reports, Empress Masako is often seen as a symbol of the oppression of women in patriarchal Japanese society. In Japan itself, however, it is assumed that she consciously ended her own professional career with her marriage.
Awards (selection)
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Individual evidence
- ↑ Guido Knopp, Die Königshäuser, Goldmann Verlag, page 139
- ^ Fritz Martin / Kobayashi Yoko, Princess Masako - The captive butterfly, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 2005
- ↑ Guido Knopp, Die Königshäuser, Goldmann, page 141 ff.
- ↑ Article Human Incarnation of the Heavenly from GeoEpoche , booklet Das kaiserliche Japan , ISBN 978-3-570-19556-7
- ↑ Princess Masako is finally getting better. In: www.welt.de. Retrieved February 8, 2010 .
- ↑ 天皇 陛下 退位 「2019 年 4 月 30 日」 政令 を 閣 議 決定 . In: Asahi Shimbun . December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2017 .
- ^ Rites and parade to mark Emperor's accession in October 2019. In: The Japan Times . March 30, 2018, accessed April 30, 2019 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Masako in the catalog of the German National Library
- Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress , information on the site of the Imperial Hofamts (English)
- CBS News | Japan's Crown Princess Crumbles
- BBC News | Princess trapped by palace guard
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Masako |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kōgō Masako; 皇后 雅子 (Japanese); Empress Masako; 小 和田 雅子 (Japanese, maiden name); Owada Masako (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese Empress, wife of Emperor Naruhito |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 9, 1963 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tokyo , Japan |