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Bourgeois in the future: Japan’s Princess Mako marries a college lover
It’s a story like something out of a fairy tale, just as beautiful, just as terrible: a princess from an imperial family falls in love with a commoner. After overcoming the arrogance of class and other obstacles, the two are allowed to and want to marry. But then a financial scandal shakes the groom’s family and he has to leave the country. The two cannot see each other for three years. This is what happened in Japan. Princess Mako, who celebrated her 30th birthday on Saturday, is the niece of the Japanese emperor and daughter of the crown prince. On Tuesday she will – and the tide is turning in her favor – marry her student love, the commoner Kei Komuro, and thus leave the imperial family and become a commoner herself. But the princess already seems to have worse things behind her. The Imperial Court Office, which is considered to be extremely conservative and narrow-lipped, announced that the media interest in the engagement and the scandal surrounding Komuro’s family, as well as the negative reporting, had triggered a post-traumatic stress disorder in Princess Mako von Akishino. Now the two are allowed to step in front of the altar – the wedding was originally planned for 2018. The couple want to live in the USA in the future, probably also to avoid the local press. A path that Prince Harry and his bourgeois wife Meghan have already chosen.
The two were separated for years after a financial scandal rocked the groom’s family. On Tuesday they will step in front of the altar. The emperor’s niece has already given up her dowry amounting to millions.