Japan publisher to print controversial royals book

TOKYO, Aug 2 (Reuters) A Tokyo publisher is planning a Japanese-language version of an Australian book about Crowm Princess Masako that the government has branded as an insult to the royal family, Kyodo news agency said today.

In February publisher Kodansha scrapped plans for a Japanese edition of ''Princess Masako - Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne'', prompting Australian author Ben Hills to complain that the Japanese government had censored his work.

The foreign ministry had sought an apology and ''appropriate steps'' from Hills, whose book it said contained many factual errors.

Kyodo said Tokyo-based publisher Daisan-Shokan was now planning to release a translation of the book in early September, with only changes to some factual errors, such as dates.

''We have determined that this book should be published here in Japan rather than anywhere else,'' Kyodo quoted a Daisan-Shokan official as saying.

The publisher could not be reached for comment.

Masako, 43, a Harvard-educated diplomat who many had hoped would help modernise the staid royal household when she married Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993, has been largely out of the public eye in recent years due to a stress-related mental illness.

Palace watchers say the illness was caused by the pressures of adapting to rigid royal life, including pressure to bear a male heir.

Masako and Naruhito have one daughter, 5-year-old Princess Aiko, who cannot ascend the throne under current law.

Plans to revise the law were shelved after Masako's royal sister-in-law gave birth last year to Prince Hisahito, the first male heir born to the imperial family in more than 40 years.

REUTERS PD RN1918