Early Life
Kiko was born in Shizuoka, Japan. She is the eldest daughter of Kazuyo and Tatsuhiko Kawashima. Her father worked as an economics professor at Gakushuin University. She was affectionately called "Kiki" by friends and relatives in her childhood.
She spent her preschool days in the United States when her father received a PhD in Regional Economy from the University of Pennsylvania and later taught there. Princess Kiko attended elementary and high school in Vienna, Austria, when her father became the chief researcher at The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, where he studied spatial science and NGO activities. The future princess became fluent in English and German. She participated in the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program (SSEAYP) in 1987 and continues to be a supporter of the program. She received her undergraduate degree from the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Letters of Gakushuin University in 1989. Kiko subsequently began graduate study in psychology at Gakushuin and completed the first part of the doctorate in 1995.
She was chosen as one of the Young Global Leaders for 2007, drawn from a poll of 4000 candidates.
Read more about this topic: Princess Akishino
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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