Japan’s teen Princess Aiko misses school for a month for health reasons

The 14-year-old’s mother, Crown Princess Masako, has been suffering from a stress-related mental condition for more than 10 years

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Aiko, known as the princess who rarely smiles, had occasionally missed class while in elementary school. File photo: Kyodo

Published: 6:21pm, 26 Oct 2016Updated: 10:44pm, 26 Oct 2016

The teenage daughter of Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako has missed one month of school with an unidentified medical complaint, according to the Imperial Household Agency, a worrying echo of her mother’s stress-induced ill-health since marrying into the imperial family.

Princess Aiko, 14, has been absent from the elite Gakushuin Girls’ Junior High School since September 26, an official of the agency told the media on Tuesday.

She has undergone medical tests at the Hospital of the Imperial Household but doctors have not been able to identify any health concerns, the official added, putting the problems down to “fatigue” as a result of examinations since the summer vacations and training for the school’s sports day.

Aiko, known as the princess who rarely smiles, was unable to attend school for a spell in 2010 after being shocked at the “rough behaviour” of some boys in her grade at her primary school. When she eventually returned to class, for a couple of hours a day, her mother had to go with her.

Japan's Princess Aiko, centre, accompanied by her parents Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, attends her graduation ceremony at the Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo in 2014. File photo: AP

Princess Masako, whose husband is next in line to assume the Chrysanthemum Throne, has had her own problems brought on by stress, since their marriage in June 1993. She has been undergoing treatment for more than a decade for an ailment that the agency that is truly the power behind the throne will only go as far as to admit is an “adjustment disorder”.