Japan
Princess Mako has married a student love – and is leaving the imperial family
After years of waiting: the Japanese princess Mako on the way to the wedding with her student love Kei Kumoru
© Chika Oshima / Kyodo News / AP / DPA
The Japanese princess Mako has been waiting for this day for years. The daughter of Crown Prince Akishino has finally married her college sweetheart. The wedding was overshadowed by disagreements.
The Japanese princess Mako, 30, married her college love Kei Komuro, 30, after years of waiting. The Japanese court yard office submitted the necessary documents for the couple to officially register the marriage with the authorities on Tuesday. Because Komuro is a commoner, Mako has left the imperial family. The marriage of the two took place without the traditional wedding ceremonies customary at court. The reason is a controversy over money disputes in the Komuros family.
Actually, the two had wanted to get married in 2018, but the wedding had been postponed due to public criticism. Years of negative press have led to a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at Mako, as the court office announced shortly before the marriage. For this reason, a press conference originally planned for the two of them on the wedding day was changed at short notice. Instead, the couple just wanted to say a few words and respond in writing to five selected questions that had to be submitted in advance by the media, as the house yard office announced.
Princess Mako – a “feeling of fear”
The idea of having to answer questions orally gives Mako a “feeling of fear”, it was said to justify. For years, Japan’s media had ruthlessly rolled out the money disputes in her husband’s family. Her future husband’s mother owed money to a man she was once engaged to. Many Japanese are outraged by the thought that the mother’s debts could be settled with Mako’s tax-financed dowry worth the equivalent of a million euros – Mako waived the dowry.
Nevertheless, the criticism and the negative headlines did not stop. Even the fact that Komuro wore a ponytail when he recently returned from the United States, where he studied law and now works for a law firm, the Japanese media tore apart. When Komuro met his future in-laws and, for the first time in three years, his Mako, the ponytail was off again. Mako and Komuro want to spend their lives in freedom in the future and therefore want to leave Japan. You want to move to the USA after you get married.
Oldest hereditary monarchy in the world is running out of offspring
While Mako and Komuro are looking forward to their future together in freedom, the arch-conservative guardians of the imperial family are worried about the future of the court. The oldest hereditary monarchy in the world is gradually running out of offspring. Only men are allowed to the throne according to the law in force. Mako’s younger brother, 15-year-old Prince Hisahito, is the only remaining male member of the youngest generation of the imperial family after her father.