IN THE nine years since Masako Owada gave up everything to become Crown Princess Masako of Japan, there have been two opposite views of the kind of life she has enjoyed.

The first is that she has adapted effortlessly to the life of cloistered privilege behind the moats of the Imperial Palace. The second is that she is miserably unhappy.

She has given the impression of being a reasonably fulfilled Empress-in-waiting. During her public appearances, she smiles and waves graciously; her few utterances have been filled with the vague pieties traditionally adopted by the Imperial Family.

And yet, one wonders, can Ms Owada really be content with the life of Crown Princess Masako? She was a fast-stream diplomat, with degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Tokyo Universities. Since her marriage her every movement has been constrained by protocol and security. Her life has been overshadowed by the need to produce an heir, for which there has been an anxious wait. She gave birth to a daughter, Princess Aiko, a year ago, apparently after fertility treatment.

It is an open secret that her mother-in-law, the present Empress Michiko, suffered a nervous breakdown because of the pressures of being a young princess. But Japan’s royals are protected by discretion and loyalty; there are none of the unnamed “friends” who helpfully dish the dirt to British reporters. Like Kremlinologists during the Cold War, Japanese royal watchers are masters of reading between the lines, and when the opportunity comes for a peep inside the imperial citadel, it is not to be turned down.

My chance came the other day at a press conference by the Crown Prince and Princess, of a kind that traditionally are held a few times a year. Unusually, eight places were to be allocated by lottery among the foreign press. The Times drew a lucky number, and I duly presented myself at the appointed time at the Akasaka Detached Palace.

Black-suited flunkies marshalled us anxiously into line to be greeted by the imperial couple.

Various impressions registered from the fleeting handshake and greeting: the noticeable difference in their heights (she is a few inches taller than he, a fact disguised in public); the fact that all of us inexplicably felt the need to whisper; and the strange atmosphere which the members of the Imperial Family seem to carry around with them of gentle and well-meaning strain.

Like the Emperor Akihito and the Empress Michiko, Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako give the impression of being terribly nice people, desperately — almost neurotically — concerned that you are not having a sufficiently nice time.

The mood of painful courtesy persisted inside the press conference room, where the imperial couple faced 30 reporters across a low table.

Each question had been submitted, vetted and edited by the imperial minders days in advance. Each was greeted as if it was a gem of incisiveness and perspicacity. Their answers were quiet to the point of inaudibility. The Crown Prince spoke of his excitement at the couple’s visit to Australia and New Zealand, which starts today, of his desire to “promote friendly relations” and to “broaden my perspective”. Even when sitting, he is unnaturally still and erect. The Crown Princess smiled expressionlessly, head tilted to one side, as her husband spoke. Her answers were shorter and equally conventional.

But occasionally there were flashes of something more honest — a wistfulness, almost a melancholy, for life as it could have been. “I often travelled abroad as a child and before my marriage, so travel had become part of my everyday life,” she said. “To be honest, it took quite a bit of effort to face the fact that foreign travel would be difficult.”

At a later press conference held to mark her 39th birthday, the Crown Princess spoke of the “insecurity” she experienced earlier in her marriage, and of the decade that had passed since then.

“People say that ten years is an epic, or that ten years goes by like the passing of a day,” she added. “I am still searching for my own personality and what it should be. . . I would also like to think about my own life’s work.”

Empress Michiko’s breakdown was brought about by her ferocious mother-in-law, the late Empress Nagako. There is no doubt that the regime endured by Crown Princess Masako is much gentler.

Is she happy? After 25 minutes in her presence, I was none the wiser.

At the end of the press conference, she stood up, bowed, and with more anxious smiles walked out of the room and back into her life.

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