REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK : The Princess Is a Hit With the President

Right now, the Japanese are fascinated by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, especially her active role in her husband’s presidency. But it was mere weeks ago when they were as fixated on one of their own, relatively rare, career women.

Crown Princess Masako, a multilingual graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities, gave up a promising diplomatic career to become the newest member of the world’s oldest imperial family. Before her June 9 wedding to Crown Prince Naruhito, there was much speculation about whether she would play a more visible and active role than has been traditional for royal wives in Japan.

Was it a signal, then, that at a formal dinner for G-7 summit leaders Thursday evening, she had the seat of honor, right between President Clinton and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin? It was the 29-year-old Masako’s first chance to use her diplomatic skills since becoming a princess. She was seen conversing easily in English and Russian with her two dinner partners--as a girl she had lived in Moscow when her diplomat father was posted there.

But there was no indication what the conversation was about.

“We talked a lot,” Clinton told a small group of American reporters. “I liked her a lot.”

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Before the dinner, Foreign Ministry spokesman Masamichi Hanabusa was asked what would happen if Clinton decided to entertain his fellow guests by playing his saxophone, as he’s been known to do.

“If he does, Mr. (Prime Minister Kiichi) Miyazawa may stop him,” Hanabusa replied.

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What’s on the menu at the Imperial Palace? For the G-7 leaders, their spouses and more than 100 guests to the banquet hosted by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, dinner consisted of consomme, sole, lamb cutlets in cherry sauce, salad and a mousse of fruit and a coffee-flavored cake with whipped cream and fruit. To wash it all down, there was a choice of sake, German and French wine and champagne.

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Fears that Mrs. Clinton would come off as too pushy in a society unaccustomed to prominent and active women apparently led White House schedulers to restrict her to sharing the activities planned for the wives of the other G-7 leaders.

So it was that Mrs. Clinton was herded through one of Tokyo’s biggest garbage disposal plants Thursday and handled it like a trooper.

“I’m having a wonderful time,” she said after she and other wives of prominent summit delegates arrived at the state-of-the-art Meguro Incineration Plant, where 600 tons of Tokyo trash are burned each day.

Then there was a six-minute video on the perils of Tokyo’s mounting waste to sit through, a tour of the high-tech control room and a souvenir toy garbage truck.

Also on Mrs. Clinton’s itinerary Thursday was a visit to Tokyo’s 45-story city hall and a stroll through the South Garden of the Imperial Palace where, officials said, no foreign guest has been allowed to walk since Queen Elizabeth visited in 1975.

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At past international meetings, Japan has always been eager to show off its traditional culture and overwhelm visitors with its famous hospitality. Elaborate displays of children’s festival dolls and bonsai trees used to be a critical ingredient of setting the tone for a meeting in Tokyo.

Even reporters were often served sumptuous meals of sukiyaki, tempura and sushi along with free sake and beer.

Not this time. In an effort to set a “business-like” tone, Japan has chosen to cut out the fancy decorations and reduce ceremony to a minimum. And journalists are being served little more than sandwiches and coffee.

“Considering their work, we think it is important for them to have quick-eating,” a Foreign Ministry official said.

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Officials of the seven wealthiest nations have also been trying to economize: They are discussing ways to reduce the size of their delegations.

“In cutting the size of our delegation,” a British official quipped, “we’ve cut the person whose job it is to count the size of the delegation.”

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Yeltsin’s visit is important to his plans for transforming Russia’s economy from state-controlled to free enterprise. But his foreign minister, Andrei V. Kozyrev, seemed to have a more urgent priority. Soon after arriving Thursday at his hotel, Kozyrev adjourned to his room, changed clothes--and headed for the tennis courts.

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Yeltsin may be a guest, but perhaps that famous Japanese hospitality doesn’t apply to Russians. Japanese still have bitter feelings about four islands that Soviet troops captured at the end of World War II and that Russia, as the successor state, holds on to.

“Get out, get out, Japanese are in charge, not Russians,” the Japanese police barked at Russian security officers waiting for Yeltsin to arrive Thursday at Haneda Airport.

And as reporters assembled to cover the arrival, the Japanese announced: “Japanese in the front. Russians in the back.”