On Tuesday, Emperor Akihito of Japan stepped down in the first abdication of the Chrysanthemum Throne in 200 years. His son Naruhito will be installed atop the world’s oldest monarchy the next day. In Episode 3 of this series, Naruhito persuaded a reluctant diplomat named Masako to marry him. Their story continues here.

The Asahi Shimbun had the scoop. On the morning of Dec. 10, 1999, Japan’s No. 2 newspaper by circulation published the front-page headline the country had been waiting for: “Princess Masako Shows Signs of Pregnancy.”

It had been six years since a brainy young diplomat named Masako Owada gave up her career to marry Crown Prince Naruhito, the next emperor of Japan. Some predicted she would help modernize the monarchy, and perhaps even the nation itself.

Now, as the country woke to the news of her pregnancy, that prospect seemed like a fading dream. The intervening years had reduced the multilingual trade expert who had studied at Harvard and Oxford to a woman failing at the only duty in her new job that seemed to matter to Japan: producing an heir to the throne.