The Emperor of Japan is still the highest secular and spiritual authority for many inhabitants of his country, even after the Tenno discarded all his power after the lost world war. The family of the emperor continues to follow the strict rules of the court. While they are close to the people, compared to a Japanese emperor, they are not as close as the rulers of other royal families like in England or in the Netherlands. They thus live in isolation at the imperial court and should a family member marry a commoner, he would lose all his titles.
The granddaughter of the current emperor, known as Aiko, has to feel it early on that she is different from the others. For one, she was a disappointment for the family, as she was a girl and could not fulfil the hope of a new crown prince. For another, she is a member of the royal family. At school, she was bullied by her schoolmates, causing her to be absent for weeks in fear. Furthermore, she hardly has any real friends and lives in the court with strict rules. The palace is unlike those in the west, as they are neither pompous nor full of luxury, but rather furnished minimalistically. The “throne”, for example, is just a black chair. She also has to live without the other pleasures of the western palaces. While the British royal family goes on excursions and adventures, the Japanese princess must constantly stay at the court, without contact to most other children. Together with her mother, who is being pressured to give birth to a prince, she is probably a symbol of the female oppression in the patriarchal system of Japan. But who knows, maybe she will create the next generation in the Japanese royal family?
