Education: Doing Very Well

'Doing Very Well'

When Elizabeth Gray Vining left for Japan to become tutor to its Crown Prince, U.S. newspapers wondered whether Akihito would learn distaff democracy at her knee. Last week Mrs. Vining sent the U.S. an informal report on her first two months in Tokyo. One between-the-lines conclusion: it might take a long time.

Despite the glamorized buildup to her job (a favorite newspaper comparison: Anna and the King of Siam), Mrs. Vining sees Akihito in private only one hour a week. A Japanese, Professor Hiroshi Kikuchi, gives the Prince most of his English lessons, which take seven of his 27 schoolroom...

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