Crown Prince Naruhito will meet with the Imperial Household Agency chief when he returns from Europe to discuss his unusually candid remarks about the condition of his wife, Crown Princess Masako, a senior agency official said Friday.
"I was instructed (by the prince) to arrange the meeting between him and Grand Steward Toshio Yuasa shortly after he comes back to Japan," Hideki Hayashida, grand master of the Crown Prince's Household, said at a scheduled news conference.
The exact date has not yet been set, Hayashida added. The Crown Prince will return on Monday afternoon, but is to dine that night with close family, including Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Any meeting with the grand steward will probably not take place until Tuesday at the earliest, according to sources close to the agency.
The Crown Prince said at a news conference May 10, before leaving on his 12-day European tour, "It is true that there were moves to negate Masako's career as a diplomat and go against her personality."