Princess Aiko's Adult Press Conference to be Held Next January to Avoid Impact of Mako Scandal
Her Imperial Highness Princess Toshinomiya Aiko , the only daughter of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress, will turn 20 years old on December 1. It has been decided that Aiko's press conference will be held at the beginning of January next year, contrary to customary practice, "Shukan Josei" reported.
Normally, the members of the Imperial
Family hold their press conferences before their birthdays, but it is extremely
unusual for it to be held a month after their birthdays. The reason behind this
is believed to be that Mako Komuro's father, Prince Akishino, will celebrate
his birthday on November 30, the day before Aiko's birthday.
There are circumstances that force them to
consider what Prince Akishino said at the press conference he will hold on the
occasion of his birthday, which will be announced publicly on November 30. This
year, too, Akishino is expected to be asked questions by reporters about the
Mako marriage scandal. Furthermore, the succession to the throne and the
dwindling number of people who can perform official duties due to the decrease
in the number of members of the Imperial Family are also likely to be discussed.
Aiko, like other female members of the
Imperial Family in the past, will undoubtedly be asked about her views on
marriage and her ideal man. It is sure that she will answer that question with
the Mako case in mind. In addition, she will have to be very careful when
answering questions about the current situation where the female emperor and
female imperial family are being discussed. Thus, it’s fair to say that she
will need a month to think about how to respond to these "difficult
questions" based on the contents of Prince Akishino's press conference.
On the day of her birthday, December 1, Princess
Aiko will be congratulated by the Director General of the Imperial Household
Agency and his entourage at the Imperial Palace in the evening, and had a
celebratory dinner with her family. On the 5th, she will visit the three halls
of the Imperial Palace, where the ancestors of the Imperial Family are
enshrined, and then receive the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious
Crown, the highest rank among female members of the Imperial Family, from His
Majesty the Emperor. In the afternoon, she is scheduled to greet Their
Majesties the Emperor and Empress and the Emperor and Empress Emeritus again, wearing
a white dress and a tiara.
The word on the street is that the tiara
that Aiko will be wearing at her coming-of-age event on the 5th will not be
new.
The tiara will not be a new one, but will
be borrowed from Kiyoko Kuroda, the Emperor's sister and Aiko's aunt. Their
Majesties and Aiko discussed the decision, saying that it was inappropriate to
make an expensive tiara when the new Corona was affecting economic activities
and forcing people to live in hardship.
Mako Komuro, a member of the Akishino
family, had her Tiara and jewelry made
by Wako, a jewelry manufacturer, for 28.56 million yen. Her younger sister, Princess
Kako, was so particular about the design of her jewelry that she publicly
advertised for a company to produce it. In the end, Mikimoto was chosen, and
the production cost was 27.93 million yen.
Among other things, Mako's coming-of-age
event was held six months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, which left
more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and at a time when many of the victims
were still in temporary housing, with no air conditioner and crazily hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
Since both of them used not Akishino family’s
private money but public funds to make the jewelry, they will be kept by the IHA
after their marriage. Mako's tiara was also returned to the treasury upon her
marriage.
There are a total of eight tiaras in the
treasury that were also returned to her, but instead of using them, Aiko
"borrowed" one from Sayako Kuroda, her father's younger sister.
Sayako Kuroda's tiara has a special
history. When Sayako came of age in 1990, a year after the death of the
previous previous emperor, Emperor Showa, she was still in mourning, so the
then Emperor and Empress (the current Emperor and Empress Emeritus) had their
daughter's tiara made at their own expense. Since it was not paid for by the
government, Sayako was to keep it as her personal property after her marriage.
It is speculated that Aiko's decision to
borrow Kiyoko's tiara was partly to show the difference in her "rank"
as the daughter of emperor, unlike Mako and Kako who are daughters of branch
families.
On the other hand, there are some new items
that will be purchased for this adult event. The white dress that Aiko will
wear on the 5th is a "robe montant," which is a formal dress for
daytime use, and this dress has been newly made.
According to Wikipedia, the robe montant is
a long-sleeved women's dress with a high stand-up collar, used today by the
female members of the Imperial Family for formal daytime events at the Imperial
Palace and for visits to the mausoleum, Ise Shrine and Meiji Shrine. The robe
décolleté, on the other hand, has a deep, wide neckline and is a formal evening
dress.
In any case, the nation's most popular princess, Aiko, will be able to celebrate her birthday three times. Many people are looking forward to seeing Aiko, now an adult member of the Imperial Family, in her tiara and dress.
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