Tough Empress Michiko Obliged To Surrender at Last

As the Imperial Household Agency revealed on Tuesday, already in early February of this year Empress Michiko of Japan sustained a ligament injury in her left knee when she fell while playing tennis at the Imperial Palace. Although she admits that from that moment the knee has never stopped hurting she did not see a doctor about it until last Monday.

Empress Michiko has been living through tough times for the greater part of her life, suffering under the bullying criticism of her mother-in-law, Empress Nagako, and of rightwing traditionalists and members of the former Japanese aristocracy. The commoner princess who cooked for her family, played with her children and dressed fashionably, enraged those who believed in a dignified and unapproachably remote emperor. To the empress who has been used to a life under constant attack that the then crown princess had to bear silently or even smilingly, a mere injured knee is probably a matter to hardly justify complaint.

But now the injury has turned out to be more serious than assumed. Although it does not require surgery, the empress has still not been able to accompany Emperor Akihito on their planned holiday to the Imperial Stock Farm in Tochigi Prefecture. It will take up to six months for her to recover fully.

For more information, see this article.

Filed under Japan
Tagged Empress Michiko of Japan, Health.