Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko in a video without sound (Provided by the Imperial Household Agency)

Photo/Illutration Crown Princess Kiko and her husband Crown Prince Fumihito at their residence in the Motoakasaka district of Tokyo’s Minato Ward. The photo was taken in August. (Provided by the Imperial Household Agency)

Crown Princess Kiko marked her 56th birthday on Sept. 11 by saying she looks forward to the day she can take a stroll with her daughter, the former Princess Mako, now known simply as Mrs. Komuro following her marriage to a commoner.

“I cannot directly meet my daughter right now, but in the meantime I tend to the plants in our garden and want to create banksia rose arches in the hope of sauntering with her here one day,” Kiko said in a written reply to questions submitted by reporters prior to her birthday.

Mako, the eldest child of Crown Prince Fumihito and Kiko, was obliged to relinquish her imperial title upon her marriage last October to her college sweetheart, aspiring lawyer Kei Komuro. The couple live in New York.

The Banksia rose was Mako’s signature mark when she was a princess and is a favorite flower of Kiko and her husband.

Referring to her daughter and son-in-law, Kiko said, “I sincerely hope that they are working together and pay close attention to their health so that they can spend their new life peacefully.”

However, she declined to answer a question about what Mako is doing these days and details about her daily life, citing her daughter’s wish for privacy.

Turning to Princess Kako, Kiko’s second daughter, the crown princess said, “I am hoping that she will fulfill her duty as a member of the imperial family by carrying out more official public activities.”

After Mako’s departure from the imperial household, Kako took over the public duties her sister used to perform.

With regard to Kako’s future, including her marriage, Kiko said she hoped to share her thoughts with her while listening carefully to her daughter’s feelings and opinions.

Kiko said Prince Hisahito, second in line to the Chrysanthemum throne after his father, “is leading a full life” as a first-year student at the University of Tsukuba’s Senior High School, adding that he raises vegetables on a plot near the family’s Akasaka Estate residence in Tokyo’s Minato Ward.

Kiko said her family helps him by pulling up weeds.

Turning to her future hopes for him, she said, “I want him to become a person who can look at the world from a wider perspective” through exchanges with people from all walks of life.

Kiko and her husband only resumed public duties fairly recently, including visits to local regions, after a hiatus due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that delayed the holding of rituals related to Fumihito’s ascension as crown prince. Those rituals have since been completed.

“I feel that we are now finally able to associate with more people,” she said.

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