Japanese Princess Akio Bullied at School, Imperial Household Agency Says

(March 5) -- Bullies can be a royal pain. Just ask 8-year-old Princess Aiko, the granddaughter of the Japanese emperor. The second-grader stayed home from school for most of the week after she was reportedly bullied by boys at her Tokyo elementary school.

A spokesman for Japan's Imperial Household Agency told The Associated Press that Princess Aiko endured stomach aches and anxiety after she and other students were subjected to "violent things" from a group of boys. The princess hasn't returned to school since Tuesday.

Princess Aiko with her mother, Crown Princess Masako, in March 2009.

Toshifumi Kitamura, AFP / Getty Images

Princess Aiko, here with her mother in March 2009, has missed school for several days because of the bullying incident, said a spokesman for Japan's royal family.

The news of the princess' plight comes just days after a survey found that reported cases of bullying in the United States has declined drastically in recent years. Wednesday, the AP reported that cases of bullying among youngsters dropped to 15 percent in 2008 from 22 percent five years earlier, possibly because of anti-bullying programs instituted in schools across the country.

But that will be little comfort to Princess Aiko, or to the beleaguered officials at her school, who, according to The Japan Times, put together a "hastily arranged" news conference to address the incident. The school's director, Motomasa Higashisono, said the princess simply "got scared Tuesday when she went by a boy who dashed out of a classroom.'' He insisted there was nothing violent about the incident. "She had decided to leave school," Higashisono said, "and just as she had returned from changing into her normal shoes from her school shoes, I hear it was two boys that approached very suddenly and nearly collided with her, which scared her."

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama wished Princess Aiko well in the Daily Mainichi. "As an individual citizen, I hope [Aiko] recovers and gets well as quickly as possible," he said.

School is not the only place Princess Aiko has been royally insulted, however. The London Times reports that the birth of a male cousin last year ended her chances of becoming empress. As the only child of the Crown Prince Naruhito, she had been next in line to the throne of the world's longest-ruling imperial family, and Japan was on the verge of changing the law to allow women to rule. Meanwhile, Aiko's mother, Princess Masako, reportedly suffers from anxiety due to her failure to produce a male heir.

And now, as NPR's Frank James notes, "life outside the palace is no prize" either.