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The Empress Michiko of Japan, (born October 24, 1934) formerly Michiko
Shoda and later the Crown Princess of Japan (April 10, 1959 to January 7,
1989), is the wife and consort of the reigning Emperor of Japan, Akihito.
She was the first commoner to marry into the Japanese imperial family. As
crown princess and later as empress, she has become the most visible and
widely travelled imperial consort in Japanese history.
Empress Michiko was born in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of Hideasburo
Shoda, president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling
Company, and his wife, Fumiko Soejima. She attended Futaba Elementary School
in Tokyo, but was obliged to leave during the fourth grade because of the
American bombing during World War II. She returned to school after the war
ended and attended the Seishin (Sacred Heart) High School in Tokyo.
She earned a bachelor of arts in English literature from the Faculty of
Literature at the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo in 1957. In August
of that year, she met then-Crown Prince Akihito on a tennis court at
Karuizawa. The Imperial Household Council (a body comprised of the prime
minister of Japan, the presiding officers of the two houses of the Diet of
Japan (or parliament]], the chief judge of the Supreme Court, and two
members of the imperial family) formally approved the engagement of the
Crown Prince to Michiko Shoda on November 27, 1958.
Although the future crown princess was the daughter of a wealthy
industrialist, she was a commoner. During the 1950s, the media and most
persons familiar with the Japanese monarchy had assumed the powerful
Imperial Household Agency (Kunaicho) would select a bride for Crown Prince
Akihito from among the daughters of the former court nobility (kuge) or from
one the former branches of the imperial family. Some traditionalists opposed
the engagement, and it was widely rumored that the Empress Nagako also was
against her son's engagement (when the dowager empress died in 2000, Reuters
news agency reported that she had reportedly bullied her effervescent new
daughter-in-law into a rumored nervous breakdown in the early 1960s). The
young couple nonetheless proved widely popular among the Japanese public.
The couple married on April 10, 1959.
Three children were born to the couple: the current Crown Prince (Naruhito),
b. February 23, 1960; Prince Akishino (Fumihito), b. November 11, 1965; and
Princess Nori (Sayako), b. April 18, 1969. Crown Prince Akihito and Crown
Princess Michiko again broke precedent by preferring to raise their children
instead of entrusting them to the care of court chamberlains; the crown
princess even breastfed.
Upon the death of the Emperor Showa (Hirohito) on January 7, 1989, her
husband became Japan's 125th emperor and she became empress (consort). The
new Emperor and Empress celebrated were enthroned (Sokui Rei Seiden no Gi)
at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on November 12, 1990.
As Crown Prince and Crown Princess, the current Emperor and Empress
Michiko made official visits to thirty-seven countries. Since their
enthronement, the imperial couple have visited an additional eighteen
countries.
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