From Mako’s PTSD to former Empress Michiko’s collapse: the mental health struggles of Japan’s royal women

Mako’s diagnosis with PTSD was only the latest example of stress-induced mental health issues to befall the female members of Japan’s imperial family

Empress Masako has long battled a stress-induced illness linked to pressures of public life, while former Empress Michiko once became unable to speak for months

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Former princess Mako Komuro, the eldest daughter of Japan’s Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, pictured in November en route to her new life in the US. Photo: Reuters

Kyodoin Tokyo

Published: 10:14am, 2 Jan 2022

The diagnosis of former princess Mako’s post-traumatic stress disorder before her controversial marriage in October has once again highlighted the intense pressure that women in the Japanese imperial family face, with some other members also plagued by mental health issues.

The former princess, 30, who is a niece of Emperor Naruhito, came under massive public scrutiny after it became known that the family of her commoner husband Kei Komuro was involved in a financial dispute.

Her aunt Empress Masako, 58, has long been battling a stress-induced illness related to the pressure she was under to produce a male heir, while former Empress Michiko, 87, the emperor’s mother, became unable to speak for months amid bashing by weekly magazines following her husband’s accession to the throne in 1989.

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako pictured at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo ahead of her 58th birthday last month. Photo: Japan’s Imperial Household Agency via AFP

Both the empress and the former empress were commoners before their marriages to then crown princes.

Under Japan’s 1947 Imperial House Law, women are not eligible to ascend the throne and female members of the imperial family leave the household upon marrying a commoner.

While the former princess and Komuro eventually married on October 26, more than four years after their relationship was made public, traditional ceremonies associated with a royal marriage were not held because of public unease over the money row.