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| | JPRI Working Paper No. 66 |
 | | Over the teacups, Naruhito was introduced to Masako Owada, then twenty-two, eldest daughter of Hisashi Owada, Director-General of the Treaty Division of the Foreign Ministry, a high-powered Japanese bureaucrat (who, it was later rumored, may have had a hand in arranging the meeting). |
 | | Masako dined at the palace with Naruhito's family, and was treated to a musical evening with the Emperor playing the cello, the Empress on the harpsichord, and their children playing viola and violins. |
 | | On his 39th birthday last year, Naruhito was once again asked whether the couple was expecting a child, and once again he joked about the stork, adding, some thought with a touch of impatience in his normally courteous manner, that he understood the importance of the question, and his people's hopes. |
| www.jpri.org /publications/workingpapers/wp66.html (4686 words) |
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