Crown prince says Masako feels better since Netherlands visit

Dumbest move that woman ever made was marrying into all this crap!

She'd feel a lot better if she could stay there for a month or 2.

she smoked some Dutch medical herbs to reduce the stress? ;)

She always has and still does seem like a mental case to me.

Perhaps the Japanese government can spend up some more tax keeping this lot in luxury to make her feel better.... poor thing....

Any time spent out of the royal nut house would make anyone feel better.

Here we go again with "stress induced illness".

"The 49-year-old crown princess developed a stress-induced illness soon after giving birth to the couple’s only daughter, Aiko, now 11."

This is actually very common amongst older mothers - they often cant adapt to the demands of a child at such an old age. Although Im sure the being royal aspect makes it worse for her. Im glad shes feeling a bit better though...

Maybe she spent some time in a coffee shop to reduce her stress levels?

I am happy she is okay now.

Two words princess: Jim Beam

Stress, yeah right. She got away from the imperial household, that why she feels better. Basically, she got away from her jailers even if she had to go to the Netherlands to do it. The problem was she had a girl and not an heir. Pressure was added since it seems the Imperial family seemed to only be capable of having girls. They were going to change the succession law, still think they should, but some member of the Imperial family had a son in 2006. I'd bet she would get a divorce if she could but I don't it would be allowed. And a trip to Spain should help, too.

Imperial household. Send the imperial couple back to New Zealand. Here they will find Major Stress Relief.

I'm astounded at how rude everyone is on the JT blogs. Day after day there is no serious discussion of the issues, only name calling, speculation, and libel. Let's try to have have a civilization.

Allow me to speculate on the nature of Masako's condition.

I believe that she feels that after suffering years of pressure from the general public and Imperial Household Agency to bear an heir, years that included losing a child due to miscarriage, Masako broke down when her beautiful child was spurned as a potential heir.

Feeling rejected by the country and absolutely isolated and defenseless, she quietly rejects the gilded cage in which she finds herself with her daughter. She may even resent the impotence of her husband in his inability to come to the defense of their child and at least make a case publicly for the possibility of an Empress Aiko.

Wonder if she got to sample the local "coffee shops". They are magic for depression.

@Abdella - please remember that these essentially useless members of society exist at the pleasure of 'we the people'. They are nothing more than irrelevant 'candy-floss' distractions from the real world. Many (many) of us are offended by the mere existence of monarchy - Monarchy is a constant reminder that human society has not managed to progress very much. I pity those that find them relevant. As a human I feel for this woman who gave up a potentially important and fantastic career to become a fantasy ideal for the non-thinking masses. But if she is to be portrayed constantly in the press (doubtless at the behest of the monarchy's vast PR machine), then it is quite apposite of me make fun of this patently ridiculous situation.