TOKYO: Japanese Princess Aiko, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, attended the graduation ceremony of Gakushuin University in Tokyo on Wednesday morning.

From April, the 22-year-old princess is set to work as a nonregular employee of the Japanese Red Cross Society while performing her official duties as an adult member of the Imperial Family.

At the university, Princess Aiko showed up wearing a light pink “furisode” long-sleeved kimono garment and a dark blue “hakama” skirt.

“I studied in the first three years in online classes and the last year on this campus. I gained a lot of new learnings and had a fulfilling four years,” she said with a smile. “I am also happy and grateful to have met wonderful teachers and friends.”

To mark her graduation, she answered questions from the press in writing.

She wrote that her graduation thesis was about Princess Shokushi, a noted 12th-century poet, and her “waka” poems, expressing her gratitude to her academic adviser and other people who helped her.

At the beginning of her statement, Princess Aiko extended her condolences over those who died in the 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 and showed her sympathy for people affected by the disaster.

Recalling her four-year university life, she said she “fondly remembers” online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. In her fourth year, she took classes with friends and talked and laughed together, which became “unforgettable memories for a lifetime,” the statement said.

In the class, “I was impressed by the beauty of waka and the diversity of interpretations,” the princess wrote, adding that she “felt relieved while gaining a great sense of achievement at the same time” when she submitted her graduation thesis.

She said that after her graduation, she will “strive to balance my official duties and work with awareness and responsibility as a member of society so that I can contribute to society as much as possible, while fulfilling my duties as a member of the Imperial Family.”

Princess Aiko entered the Department of Japanese Language and Literature at the university’s Faculty of Letters in spring 2020. This time, the department had 99 graduates, including the princess.

She asked for a job at the Japanese Red Cross Society as she is interested in welfare activities in general.

JIJI Press