Japanese Princess Kako, a granddaughter of Emperor Akihito, returned from Britain on Friday after finishing nine months of education at the University of Leeds as an exchange student.

"I had an enjoyable and fruitful nine months in Britain. I will treasure my experiences there," the princess was quoted as saying by the Imperial Household Agency.

The 23-year-old daughter of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko studied performing arts at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries as well as psychology, her major at International Christian University in Tokyo, the agency said.

The princess spent her spring vacation in March in Portugal and Spain with a female friend from the University of Leeds. She will start her senior year at ICU from September.

This exchange program was her first overseas stay since the summer of 2013, when she undertook a month-long homestay in the United States as a freshman at Tokyo's Gakushuin University. She quit Gakushuin the following year and entered ICU in April 2015.

Among other Japanese imperial family members, her elder sister Princess Mako had studied at the University of Edinburgh. Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, will study at Eton College on the outskirts of London this summer.