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Will she cope with the pressure?
It's a small announcement of great importance: The Japanese Emperor Akihito (79) has just announced that he and his wife Michiko (78) want to step down after their 80th birthday. Certain tasks will then go to her sons Crown Prince Naruhito (53) and Prince Akishino (47). First thoughts of a abdication?
So far, despite his ailing health and his advanced age, the emperor had insisted on observing the status quo. If he voluntarily gives up tasks, that means something.
But not only his sons Naruhito and Akishino have new responsibilities. Even their wives Masako (49) and Kiko (46) are then clamped. That means more responsibility and of course more pressure to function.
And that's exactly what Crown Princess Masako has been struggling with since her wedding. For a long time, she did not get pregnant, suffered a miscarriage, and when at last a child was born, it was "just" a girl. The officials are disappointed with the princess who is so "selfish".
Dutifully, on the other hand, Princess Kiko showed. She gave birth to her husband after two girls another son: Hisahito (6), who now takes third place in the throne.
Actually, Masako could relax. But she knows that you are not satisfied with her. Her husband offers her all the support, but that can not appease the Kaiserhof. Masako has "officially" failed. She probably does not and will never give the chrysanthemum throne a male heir. And the closer a possible takeover of the throne comes, the more aware Masako should become this fact.
For a long time she suffers from "adjustment difficulties", so the official term. Depression should have them, can not come to terms with the corset of strict court etiquette. It was not until the end of 2012 that she confirmed: Yes, I am still ill and under treatment.
But one could hardly believe that, when Princess Masako surprisingly emerged to the enthronement of King Willem-Alexander (46) in Holland. For eleven years she had not traveled abroad at any official date; she had not left Japan for seven years. The fact that Masako presented herself to the public in Tokyo with her husband Naruhito and her daughter Aiko (11) this year raised hopes. Is she really feeling better?
Now the Crown Princess has to prepare to be crowned Empress in the near future. Will she be able to stand this pressure? Empress Michiko is said to have suffered a nervous breakdown in her youth. Today you do not notice anything that the bourgeois once was so alive. Was her personality broken? So, as it seems to Masako at the moment? There seems to be a curse on the chrysanthemum throne . And it's unclear if Princess Masako will be the one to break this curse ...
