Japan princess overcomes cash scandal, PTSD to marry faculty sweetheart

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Princess Mako will marry a commoner in a subdued ritual on Tuesday after a three-year engagement tormented by scandal and media hypothesis, which has left the 29-year-old niece of the emperor with post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD).

She is going to change into an strange citizen after marrying Kei Komuro, a 30-year-old Japanese regulation graduate who lives in New York, according to legal guidelines mandating feminine imperial relations abandon royal standing.

Their Tuesday marriage will primarily encompass submitting paperwork, then holding a information convention. Whereas marrying out of royalty is not unusual in Japan, the shortage of pomp for a royal wedding ceremony is. Mako even turned down the standard $1.3 million fee given to ladies leaving the household.

An engagement first cheered by the Japanese folks quickly turned troubled as tabloids reported a cash scandal involving Komuro’s mom, prompting the press to activate him.

Within the absence of clear explanations by the Imperial Family Company (IHA), which runs the household’s lives, the story unfold to the mainstream press, often scrupulous in royal reporting.

“British royals have been fairly clear once they wanted to elucidate issues, however finally this wasn’t ever clarified,” mentioned Hideya Kawanishi, an affiliate professor at Nagoya College.

The saga started quietly sufficient in 2017 when the 2 faculty sweethearts introduced their engagement.

“I will be comfortable if I could make a heat and cozy household filled with smiles,” Mako informed a information convention, with the loving seems to be they exchanged fascinating the nation.

However simply months later, the tabloids reported a monetary dispute between Komuro’s mom and her former fiance, with the person claiming mom and son hadn’t repaid a debt of about $35,000. Komuro has mentioned the cash was offered as a present, not a mortgage. In 2021, he issued a 24-page clarification and in addition mentioned he would pay a settlement.

In February 2018, the wedding was postponed till 2020, ostensibly for extra time to “put together”. Six months later, Komuro left for Fordham College’s regulation faculty, to return solely three years later.

“The royal household ought to exist with out troubles linked to cash, the financial system, or politics,” mentioned Akinori Takamori, a lecturer at Kokugakuin College in Tokyo.

“Morally, the Japanese folks need them to be impeccable.”

Mako’s father Crown Prince Akishino informed a information convention in 2018 that with out fixing the monetary challenge the wedding could not happen, including he and his daughter “do not communicate that always just lately.”

He grudgingly gave in after Mako issued an announcement saying marriage was “a essential alternative” in November 2020.

“UNBLESSED MARRIAGE”

Komuro returned to Japan in September as a Fordham graduate and worker at a New York regulation agency, however his informal ponytail induced a media frenzy because it was deemed “disrespectful”.

He visited Mako’s dad and mom earlier this week in a darkish swimsuit and tie, ponytail shorn. Tabloids nonetheless sniped he arrived late attributable to site visitors jams.

After their Tuesday marriage, Mako – who has by no means had a surname or held a passport earlier than – will put together to maneuver to New York.

Whereas their story has evoked comparisons to England’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and moved to america, Takamori cited essential variations.

“There is not a spot for Komuro in Japan, and so Mako, regardless of affection for her household, cannot keep. It is not that they’ve fallen out along with her household.”

Peculiar Japanese have blended emotions, opinion polls present.

“As a father of daughters, I believe it should be fairly painful for her father to recognise an unblessed marriage,” mentioned Yoshinori Okabe, 63 and a dentist.

However Chiaki Kadota, 29, mentioned it was a non-public matter: “I personally suppose it is higher to go away them alone.”

(Extra reporting by Irene Wang; Modifying by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)



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