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Inside the Cocoon. What sort of an individual is the crown prince? Dr. Koizumi has supplied a remarkably candid summing up: "He is by no means an exceptional young man. But he will do. He is sincere, takes his responsibilities seriously, and he is a good thinker even if the process is sometimes painful. He is the product of his upbringing. Like other members of the imperial family, he has lived a cocoonlike existence, with little knowledge of people and events in the outside world. He has too many servants but he lives simply. His great handicap is that all his life things have been spoon-fed to him, including education. He is an excellent horseman, a good swimmer, and very good at table tennis. He smokes moderately and drinks little. I think he has a good capacity for alcohol, but as he is the crown prince, it is perhaps just as well that he does not drink too much."
In his twice-weekly meetings with the prince, Dr. Koizumi often read aloud from Harold Nicolson's biography King George the Fifth, for, like many Japanese liberals, he feels that the imperial family must reign, but not govern, much in the manner of the British royal family. The prince proved especially fond of anecdotes detailing the homely, comfortable existence of Britain's rulers—such passages as "King George preferred a quiet evening at home, when he could read aloud to the Queen."
Dr. Koizumi was distantly acquainted with Michiko Shoda before she met the crown prince, and subsequent investigation, he said, "showed her to be far better than anyone." In fact, her name had been included on the first, very large list of prospective brides that had been drawn up by the imperial household, but it had been excluded—with all other commoners—from the small, final list. But there was no longer doubt where the prince's inclinations lay.
As rumors spread through the capital, Michiko Shoda suddenly left Japan, on her first trip abroad, visited Europe and the U.S., where she heard Pianist Van Cliburn play his first concert in Carnegie Hall. There were letters along the way from the prince, and, troubled, Michiko wrote her parents: "I don't believe commoners should be united with the imperial family. I doubt if such a step would have good results." To the prince she wrote: "I hope you will let me be a close friend of yours for a long, long time."
She returned to Japan last October, just after her 24th birthday. Akihito deluged her with impassioned letters, telephoned daily. On Nov. 3, on the telephone, Michiko Shoda told the crown prince that she would marry him, if he really wished it. The Director of the Imperial Household Board was dispatched to the Shoda house formally to request Michiko's hand for Akihito. The news was joyfully received by most of the press and public. Editorials took the opportunity to chide some palace officials for cloistering the imperial family, for having tended in recent years to lower a "chrysanthemum curtain" between the throne and the people. One newspaper boldly declared: "Michiko-san may be a commoner, but it is the crown prince who is getting the best of the bargain."