Japan's "sad" princess marks 15th wedding anniversary
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Japan's Crown Princess Masako marked her 15th wedding anniversary on Monday without pomp or ceremony, five years after being diagnosed with a stress-induced mental illness that keeps her largely from public view.
When Crown Prince Naruhito married Masako, a Harvard graduate and former diplomat, he promised to "protect her with all his might" from the strains of the rigid life of Japan's royal Chrysanthemum household.
But after a decade of married life, she was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder that keeps her from performing most official duties, and royal watchers have said pressure to bear a male heir to take the ancient throne was a factor behind her illness.
Japanese women's magazines, which have long tracked Masako's every move, wrote this month that the princess found official duties very difficult.
Magazine Josei Jishin said Masako was expected to sit still next to her husband at official ceremonies rather than make use of her formidable intellect.
Masako has rarely been seen at official gatherings since 2003, leading some tabloids to criticize her as a slacker who manages to find time for friends and hobbies.
Some ordinary Japanese agree. "I don't like the way the media hypes up all the news about Princess Masako. If she is sick I understand, but it sounds like she is just having fun," said 49-year-old company employee Takeshi Fujita.
Others, however, are more sympathetic to the "sad" princess.
"If she's not working and fulfilling her duty, just let her be free to live her life," said Nanako Ando, 59, who works for a publisher.
The royal couple had planned to visit Spain in July, but the Imperial Household Agency recently announced that Masako would not take part due to "health and scheduling" reasons.
Masako's daughter Aiko, who was born in 2001, is not eligible to succeed to the males-only throne under current succession law.
Plans to revise the law and remove the gender ban were shelved after Masako's sister-in-law gave birth in 2006 to Prince Hisahito, the first male heir born to the imperial family in more than 40 years.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
