Prince Fumihito of Japan and Princess Kiko: no “harmony” in the imperial family in the face of new unknowns

The emperor Naruhito sent his brother, the crown prince Fumihito, Prince Akishino at the presentation ceremony of the Japanese team in Tokyo for the XIX Asian Games which will be held in Hangzhou from 23 September to 8 October. The Empress Masakowho has been battling depression for years, will be represented at the event by the princess Kiko, while the Japanese royal house puts aside the historic rivalry between Japan and China (the host country, which has lifted the pandemic restrictions) to support the members of its Olympic team, but raising a question: will the princes go to China for the Asian Games? Princess Kiko, who wore a white pantsuit, black bag and matching hat adorned with a white-trimmed black ribbon, showed off a pearl necklace with matching earrings and a round gold brooch.

It often happens that crown princes represent emperors, especially when it comes to trips abroad, as happened, for example, on the occasion of the funeral of Elizabeth II and the coronation of Charles III, who also went without Camilla at Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony in October 2019. As tradition dictates, as a sign of respect, Prince Fumihito had followed a few steps behind his brother, who became the new emperor of Japan. With that ceremony, a new, baptized era began in the land of the Rising Sun Reiwa, which in Japanese means “harmony”. A word, however, that could hardly be used to define the relationships between members of the imperial family.

There are in fact some differences of opinion between the brothers (and sisters-in-law), which became partly evident after the enthronement. Prince Akishino openly criticized the family, declaring that they (and not the Japanese government) would have to bear part of the costs of the emperor’s enthronement. He also believed that a more modest ceremony than the one that took place would have been more appropriate: a proposal that was ignored.

The prince believes that he should be held in greater esteem: if nothing else, since the absence of a male descendant places him at the head of the line of succession to the throne and will probably be his son Hisahito to succeed the current emperor. «He gives the impression of being a destabilizing force and of swinging an ax against his brother. It also seems that he wants to get noticed. We could find ourselves faced with the classic case of family feud, almost Shakespearean, within the imperial house”, he declared to the newspaper TheTelegraph Noriko Hama, professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto, after Naruhito’s enthronement.

A rivalry that dates back to the 80s and that was born due to the different education received by the two: Naruhito, in fact, studied at Oxford, something that Fumihito would have been denied. The bad relationship between brothers also extends to their respective wives, who are experiencing their own “cold war”: since Masako became empress and returned to the spotlight of the country and the world, it seems that Princess Kiko’s jealousy has worsened. Furthermore, the princess could also be disturbed by the fact that her daughter Mako renounced her imperial title to marry her university friend Kei Komuro and then left Japan to live in New York away from his family.