Japanese royalty Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako may have set their summer agenda. According to a new report by Japanese outlet Nippon TV, the couple is expected to make state visits to Belgium and the Netherlands in June, after receiving invitations from both European countries, government sources told the outlet this week.
If the trip happens, it will mark the first visit to multiple countries on a single trip since then Crown Prince Naruhito and then Crown Princess Masako traveled to New Zealand and Australia in 2002. It would also be a rare public outing for the Empress, who has largely retreated from public life amid mental health concerns.
Before marrying into the Japanese royal family in 1993, the Princess, then Masako Owada, studied at both Harvard and Oxford universities before working as a career diplomat. The New York Times reported that much of Masako’s malaise stemmed from public pressures to conceive a male heir. After a miscarriage, Empress Masako gave birth to a daughter, Princess Aiko, meaning “love,” in 2001. During this fraught period, court officials limited her travel and restricted phone use, leading Empress Masako to issue a statement saying that she was suffering “accumulated exhaustion, mental and physical.” In 2018, Emperor Akihito abdicated the throne at age 84 to his son Naruhito succeeded and Masako, who “has suffered from a stress-related disorder for many years,” the BBC reported, “says she is slowly recovering and will try to perform more royal duties.”
The Dutch and Japanese royals have a longstanding bond. In 2006, for example, then-princes Naruhito and Masako traveled to the Netherlands so that she could rest and recuperate. In 2014, the empress left her seclusion and traveled again to the Dutch country to attend the coronation of Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, confirming the friendly relationship between the two houses. The Dutch king, for his part, visited the Imperial Palace in 2025.
The Japanese imperial family and the Dutch royal family in the Netherlands, in 2006.
Michel Porro/Getty Images
As for Belgium, Naruhito and Masako attended the wedding of the then Prince Philip in 1999, an event that brought the two royal houses together. In addition, the year 2026 marks a relevant anniversary: 160 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Belgium, a figure that makes this possible trip a perfect occasion to renew ties and look to the future.
According to the sources, welcome ceremonies, banquets and other events are under consideration in both countries for a trip that is expected to last between 10 to 14 days. If Empress Masako makes the trip with her husband, it would mark yet another milestone in her push to make more public appearances in recent years. In 2004, then Prince Naruhito told the press that Masako had “completely exhausted herself” attempting to adapt to palace life, adding, “I think it would be better if Princess Masako could go out with a little more freedom and be able to do a variety of things.” With a summer of travel in their sights, the now Empress Masako could be making good on that wish by re-entering public life.
Originally published in Vanity Fair Spain.
AloJapan.com