Empress Masako
Princess Masako (born December 9 1963) is the Crown Princess of Japan.
Born Masako Owada, the daughter of Hisashi Owada, a senior diplomat, she has traveled the world with her parents since she was a child. She went to kindergarten in Moscow, attended Belmont High School in Boston, and graduated from Harvard University. She became fluent in several languages and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. By all accounts, Masako is very intelligent and talented, and she might have gone far in a diplomatic career.
She married Naruhito, the Crown Prince of Japan, on June 9 1993, much to the public's delight. However, many younger Japanese women felt conflicted when Masako gave up her career in order to marry the Crown Prince, thereby accepting the many restrictions imposed by life in the Imperial Court.
After a miscarriage, she gave birth to a girl Aiko on December 1 2001. Princess Aiko's birth stimulated public debate on changing Japan's imperial succession law to add royal daughters.