Bullies force Japanese princess to miss school

JAPAN'S Princess Aiko, granddaughter of the emperor, has missed several days of classes because of bullying by boys at her elementary school, a spokesman for the royal family said yesterday.

The news provided a rare glimpse into the private affairs of the world's oldest hereditary monarchy, which usually abides by strict, formal protocols and is tightlipped about personal matters.

The eight-year-old princess complained of a stomach ache and expressed deep anxiety and has not attended school since coming home early on Tuesday, the spokesman for the Imperial Household Agency said.

An investigation by the agency and the school revealed that she and several other students had suffered "violent things" from boys in another class, the spokesman said, declining to elaborate.

The story is likely to shock the Japanese. The imperial family is treated with deep reverence in the country, where Aiko's great-grandfather, Emperor Hirohito, was worshipped as a living god until Tokyo's defeat in the Second World War.

But an official at the elite Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district attended by Princess Aiko said the incident may have been a simple misunderstanding.

"She had decided to leave school, 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," school director Motomasa Higashisono said .