The news, leaked to the press two weeks before the official palace announcement, sent crowds into the streets to grab up single-sheet extras issued by the country’s biggest papers. Rokuro Ishikawa, chairman of The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called the engagement “the greatest news of the century”-and predicted that it would “stimulate suppressed consumer demand.”
It was no small accomplishment for Crown Prince Naruhito, either. The bookish, 32-year-old Oxford man has long been searching for a bride. The daughters of Japan’s elite deemed themselves too modern to accept the tradition-bound rigidity of the royal family. The Japanese press took so much pity on Naruhito’s fruitless quest that early last year they agreed to a royal request for a moratorium on writing about it.
In addition to being the right height to be princess, Owada has the added benefit of being well versed in foreign languages and in trade relations with the United States. She comes from one of Japan’s most prominent families-her father is a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official-and grew up in the Soviet Union and the United States. She has an economics degree from Harvard and studied at Oxford and Tokyo University. Sources close to the prince say he had his eye on her from the day they met at a party in 1986. She reportedly turned him down at first, but the prince persisted. He kept calling until she said yes sometime last month. The question now is whether Owada can move the fossilized Chrysanthemum Throne into the 20th century with her. At the very least, the princess bride will be the one to ensure that the 2,700-year-old royal line will continue. Maybe the marriage isn’t such a bad career move, after all.
