It's a fairytale in reverse.
Her Imperial Highness Princess Sayako of Japan, scion of one of the world's oldest monarchies, will marry her commoner fiance on November 15, becoming plain Mrs Sayako Kuroda.
Marriage to Yoshiki Kuroda, a Tokyo urban planner, means the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko must leave the sequestered environment of the Imperial family for a new life as a housewife.
No daughter of an emperor has married out since 1960 and Japan's tabloid media are watching closely for clues as to how the reserved 36-year-old princess, a keen birdwatcher and student of traditional Japanese dance, will cope with the transition.
Freed from a busy round of formal ceremonies and public appearances, Sayako has also resigned from her part-time job, leaving uncertainty as to how she will spend her time...
...Sayako's mother, who is also said to have suffered great mental distress as the first commoner to marry an heir to the throne, has tried to prepare her to avoid a similar shock in reverse, royal watchers say.
"Michiko had so many problems and she was determined her daughter would not," said Midori Watanabe, a college lecturer and expert on royalty who has written books on the imperial family.
The empress sent her daughter to a neighborhood kindergarten for a year and taught her the basics of cooking and housekeeping.
From an early age, it was Sayako's job to fetch the milk and newspapers for the family every morning, Watanabe said, adding that, as a child she also liked to bake cookies and deliver them to her grandfather, Emperor Hirohito.
A 152.5 million yen lump sum from the government will keep Sayako far from penury, although she will have to swap the grandeur of the imperial palace and its vast gardens where she liked to observe the birdlife, for an ordinary apartment complex.
For her 40-year-old fiance, their home may seem relatively luxurious. Though a descendant of Japan's now-abolished aristocracy, media reports say Kuroda currently shares a 60 square meter (645 square feet) apartment with his mother....more...
