Something is amiss within Japan's Imperial household. For nearly a year now, the Crown Princess Masako has suspended her official functions for "health reasons." The public knew next to nothing about the details of her disposition or the effectiveness of treatment, for reasons that included the extreme lack of information disclosed by the Imperial Household Agency and the voluntary restraint on reporting exercised by Japan's mass media.
Eventually, the cause of Princess Masako's impaired health was disclosed in an unexpected manner. The Crown Prince himself said during a press conference in May that the Crown Princess had been "deeply distressed by the fact that she was not freely permitted to pay overseas visits, even though she considered promoting international good will an important role to be played by a member of the Imperial family."
He went further, stating flatly that "there were indeed some moves purporting to dismiss Masako's career and her personality based on that career."