Man sneaks into home of Crown Princess Masako

A Japanese man curious about Crown Princess Masako, the former career diplomat who has withdrawn from public life due to stress, was arrested for breaking into her parents' house, news reports said yesterday.

The princess's commoner mother, Yumiko Owada, stepped briefly out of her home in an upscale Tokyo neighborhood to talk to a neighbor on Tuesday evening and returned to find the 26-year-old man in her living room, Jiji Press said.

She called police who arrested the man, who entered through the unlocked main door.

"I wanted to see the house of Crown Princess Masako," the man told police, according to Jiji Press.

The man may be mentally impaired and was employed at a workshop for people with disabilities. Reports said he was making "incomprehensible" statements to police.

Jiji Press said police decided to release him and question him on a voluntary basis because he did not seem able to handle being in police custody.

Police declined to comment on the reports.

Masako's father, Hisashi Owada, a former top Japanese diplomat, lives mostly in the Netherlands, where he is a judge at the International Court of Justice.

Masako, 41, who spent much of her youth abroad, left her own promising diplomatic career to marry Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993.