Media : Japan’s Press Whips Up the Froth for Stories on Imperial Engagement : The real questions get lost as readers lap up these facts: The bride-to-be batted cleanup for school softball team and likes Korean-style grilled beef.

It was, as one tabloid here put it, “the media war of the century.”

At precisely 8:45 p.m. last Wednesday, the stunning energy of Japan’s mass media kicked into high gear for one of the biggest stories of the year: Crown Prince Naruhito, the 32-year-old heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne, had finally found a bride.

Naruhito’s travails aimed at getting hitched had caused considerable consternation among royal watchers. But after some 10 meetings and scores of telephone calls over six years of courtship--and despite one polite rejection--he had managed to persuade Masako Owada, a 29-year-old Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, to change her mind and agree to become the future Empress of Japan.

The media went mad.

Each of Tokyo’s five major TV stations preempted most of its evening programming to air nonstop royal coverage--irritating many viewers who were confused when a three-hour samurai drama they had been watching was cut off in the middle. Leading newspapers hustled special sections out that evening, emblazoned with color photos and banner headlines.

Perhaps in no other free country could so many pages of copy and hours of broadcast time deliver so many details on a story--Owada’s place in her softball team’s batting order--yet skirt entirely such sensitive questions as whether the worldly career woman really fell for the prince or just succumbed to ferocious pressure to sacrifice herself for the national interest.

To media analysts such as Soka University professor Naoyuki Arai, the story’s treatment illustrates anew how carefully Japan’s journalists still must tread when it comes to the Imperial Family.

While noting that the “princess search is a positive event,” Arai explained: “Japan’s media tends to overplay Royal Family reports without any criticism. If the mass media isn’t careful, they’ll tend to be controlled. As a result, the nation may be put into the black box like the prewar period without being informed of the real news.”

In any case, the screaming headline award would probably go to Nikkan Sports, a daily tabloid. Its banner headline, composed only of the couple’s names, took up two-thirds of the page. There followed 10 more pages of similar blaring headlines: “He Persuaded Her Over Six Years,” “A Honeymoon in Europe,” “A 500 Million Yen Wedding.”

More than 300 reporters flocked to the Owada home in Tokyo and staked out spots overnight. Others were dispatched around Tokyo to interview any and all who had even the faintest connection to Owada, and some who did not. Still others fanned out across the United States and other places where Owada--who spent 12 years abroad and is fluent in several languages--grew up and went to school.

The media served up a steady diet of news nuggets about the bride-to-be. Owada likes Korean-style grilled beef. She’s good at disco dancing. She batted cleanup for her school softball team. She displays pictures of her dog, Chokora, on her desk. Her nickname is Owa. She stayed at the office until 5 a.m. some days, earning a reputation as the “Woman Who Doesn’t Need Sleep.”

For its part, TV offered the best example of infotainment. One station accompanied a shot of Owada’s second-floor bedroom with the sound of a ringing telephone, as these words blared across the screen: “Ra-bu Ka-ru” (“Love Call”). (After Owada turned the prince down last fall, he was said to have called her almost nightly to try to persuade her to change her mind.)

The TBS network broadcast commentary on the royal match from such noted celebrities as Gin-san and Kin-san, wizened 100-year-old twin sisters. “Once they get married, they have to do ‘that thing’ and have a child,” Gin-san declared.

Other commentary was more substantive. Anna Ogino, a writer and winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, voiced the concern of many women about Owada: Will such a highly educated, skilled and independent career woman, who helped negotiate U.S.-Japan trade agreements on everything from semiconductors to foreign lawyers, really be happy entering the cloistered world of the imperial court, where her prime duty will be to produce a royal heir?

“It’s a turning point for the Royal Family--whether a talented woman like Owada will be buried under the stereotypes or be a stimulus to opening the Royal Family up,” Ogino said.

Despite the energy, the Japanese press did leave some obvious reportorial stones unturned. There has been nary a word about whether Owada has had previous boyfriends and no speculation about the extent to which she was pressured into the match.

*

In the ultimate act of control, Japanese reporters allowed the Washington Post to break the story rather than challenge their self-imposed news blackout.

Yet there appeared to be no regrets: The day after the news was announced, the Yomiuri newspaper reaffirmed its support of the blackout in an editorial, saying it had been necessary to a “create a calm environment” and “respect the human rights” of those involved. (The paper also reported after the fact that it had learned of the engagement on Dec. 12).

And despite its aggressiveness, the press here was not exactly hard-hitting when Owada finally stepped out of her home Friday for the first time since the news broke.

Given one shot at her, a reporter asked, “How’s your cold?”

“Yes, I’m all right,” Owada answered.

Chiaki Kitada, a researcher in The Times Tokyo Bureau, contributed to this report.