December Babies: The Empress of Japan turns 61

Empress Masako of Japan, born Masako Owada, was born in Tokyo on this day in 1963. She married Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993 and has served as empress of Japan since the abdication of her father-in-law, Emperor Akihito, in 2019.

The Empress is the daughter of Hisashi Owada, a retired diplomat who served on the International Court of Justice as president (from 2009 to 2012), and Yumiko Egashira. She has two younger sisters, Reiko and Setsuko.

Due to her father’s demanding job as an overseas diplomat, Masako and her family moved first to the Soviet Union, then to the United States during the mid- 1960’s and then back to Tokyo in 1971. Masaka was then enrolled at a prestigious Roman Catholic day school while her father worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Masako went on to earn a degree in economics from Harvard University in 1985. She then enrolled at the University of Tokyo and went on to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after being one of the few people to pass the rigorous entrance examination. She worked with the Ministry’s international organizations department and wrote trade briefs, also helping with translating documents. The Ministry sent her to Oxford, England, for postgraduate studies in 1988, but she returned to Tokyo before submitting her thesis.

Masako first met her future husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, at a reception held for HRH Infanta Elena of Spain in 1986 while she was still at the University of Tokyo. Naruhito pursued her relentlessly, even after she went to study at the University of Oxford, but Masako was unwilling to give up her promising career as a diplomat to join the restrictive environment of the Imperial Family. Naruhito continued to show interest in her, and she finally accepted his marriage proposal on December 9, 1992. The Imperial Household formally announced the engagement on January 19, 1993, and the engagement ceremony was held on April 12, 1993. They married on June 9, 1993, when she became known as Her Imperial Highness The Crown Princess.

As Crown Princess, Masako travelled widely with her husband to promote Japanese culture and diplomacy. During the 1990s, the Crown Princely couple visited Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. The couple also travelled to Belgium for the 1999 wedding of Prince Phillipe to Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz. 

During this time, there was significant pressure on Masako to produce a male heir. She gave birth to a girl, Aiko, in 2001. This prompted significant controversy in Japan, where people questioned the imperial law that barred women from ascending the throne.

Masako became empress consort the day after her father-in-law, Emperor Akihito, abdicated. Her first trip abroad as Empress was to the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.