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, born on 9 December 1963, is the wife of Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, who is the eldest son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko and the heir apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is a member of the Imperial House of Japan through marriage. When the Crown Prince ascends the throne, Masako will become empress consort. ==Early life and education== was born in Tokyo, on 9 December 1963, in a public hospital in Toranomon. Masako is the eldest daughter of Yumiko Egashira and Hisashi Owada who is a senior diplomat and former president of the International Court of Justice. She has two younger sisters, twins named Setsuko and Reiko. Masako went to live in Moscow with her parents when she was two years old, where she attended Detskiysad (kindergarten in Russian) No. 1127 daycare.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.42–44.〕 At the age of five Masako's family moved to New York City, where she attended New York City public kindergarten No. 81.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.45.〕 In 1971 the Owadas returned to Japan, moving in with her maternal grandparents in Meguro while Hisashi returned to the Foreign Ministry office.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, 46.〕 After failing the entrance examination and attending two other schools in a span of a few weeks,〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.48.〕 Masako was able to enter Futaba Gakuen, a private Roman Catholic girls' school in Denenchofu, Tokyo.〔 Established by the Congregation of the Holy Infant Jesus in 1872, Masako's mother and maternal grandmother had graduated from this school as well.〔 It was here that Masako learned to play piano and tennis, joined a handicrafts club, and became interested in animals, tending several after school and deciding to become a veterinarian.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.49.〕 Masako also studied her fourth and fifth languages, French and German.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.50.〕 With a school friend, Masako revived Futaba's softball team, serving as third baseman and after three years bringing her team to the district championships.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.52.〕 In 1979, her second year of senior high school, Masako and her family moved to the United States and settled in the Boston, Massachusetts, suburb of Belmont, where her father became a guest professor of international law at Harvard College's Centre for International Affairs.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.92.〕 In 1981, she graduated from the co-educational Belmont High School, where she was president of the National Honor Society and participated in the school's math team and French club.〔 Masako joined the school's softball team and won a Goethe Society award for her German poetry.〔 Masako even participated in a production of ''M *A *S *H''.〔 Masako received a scholarship to enroll in the Economics Department of Harvard College/Radcliffe College. When her father received a posting in Moscow after her graduation, it was decided that Masako would stay in Boston to attend school under the guardianship of her father's Harvard friends Oliver and Barbara Oldman.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.95.〕 At Harvard-Radcliffe Masako became chairman of the school's Japan Society, "became quite close friends with the then Japanese consul in Boston, and volunteered as a kind of self-appointed diplomat and cultural ambassador"〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.101.〕 in the wake of mounting Japan–United States trade tension. Masako liked to ski and traveled overseas during vacations, staying with a host family in France and studying at the Goethe-Institut.〔 Masako worked with Jeffrey Sachs to obtain a A.B. ''magna cum laude'' in economics in March 1985.〔Hills, Ben. Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, pp.106–107.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Masako, Crown Princess of Japan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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