Back on April 22, Queen Mary wore a cozy maroon knit cap to open a new hiking trail in Hannenov Forest.
On April 26, Princess Hanako wore a charming pink brimmed hat for a royal museum awards event
Also on April 26, Empress Masako wore a white brimmed hat with wide lace hatband piped in the same pistachio green as her suit. It’s such a great colour on her!
On April 29, Princess Hanako attended the All Japan Judo Championships. The black crown of her hat was stitched in white with a white brim, black hatband and side bow.
Last weekend, Princess Anne attended the Sea Cadet Corps National Drill and Piping Competition. This weekend, she donned her Canadian naval uniform to commission a new ship in Vancouver and commemorate the Battle of the Atlantic in Victoria.
Princess Akiko in an interesting pale blue silk hat yesterday in Kyoto- it’s a bumper with two upturned brims, one stacked right on top of the other!
Queen Máxima repeated a black felt extended brim fedora by Fabienne Delvigne yesterday at the Dutch National Remembrance ceremony.
We’ll catch up on hats from the Royal Windsor Horse show Tuesday, along with two state visits!
Images from Getty and social media as indicated
Royal Hats 
Princess Akkiko’s hat is a clever and stylish take on this hat form.
I just saw- there is a green leaf trim on one side!
https://twitter.com/ImperialJPNfan/status/1788088944938136037/photo/1
Love that leaf! This hat definitely suggests the idea that we may see more interesting hat variations from the younger Japanese Imperials in years to come. Incidentally, Akiko is quite an interesting person in her own right — according to her Wikipedia page, she was educated at Oxford, has a doctoral degree, and is very well traveled representing various Japanese causes and activities. I look forward to knowing more about her (and seeing her hats) in the future!
I’m not fond of Maxima’s hat here, it’s a very formal event, and the hat just has too informal a vibe for me.
The Japanese royal ladies basically wear the same shape all the time, and it would be so nice to see them branch out into something different / bolder / bigger. However, within their own parameters, this group of hats certainly offers a bit more variety than usual, which is great to see.
To Queen Maxima’s defense it must be said the weather wasn’t great and the wide brimmed felt at least protected her face from the rain. The black scarf also looks as if it may have been a last minute addition.