The princess wants to get married. But a wedding with a lot of pomp and glamor is not to be expected. There are reasons for that.
Tokyo – Japan’s Princess Mako (29) made her ancestors’ last visit as a member of the imperial family shortly before her wedding.
The upcoming civil marriage of Mako on October 26th with her college sweetheart Kei Komuro (30), a commoner, is overshadowed by a controversy about money disputes in the family of her fiancé, ruthlessly rolled out by the Japanese media. That is why the usual wedding celebrations and traditional ceremonies at court do not take place.
Against this background, Emperor Naruhito’s niece only prayed to her ancestors in the palace from the courtyard of a Shinto shrine, instead of inside the shrine in traditional costume, as can be seen in photos.
Mako, who, according to the House Court Office, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to years of negative press, will meet Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Friday and her grandparents, ex-Emperor Akihito and his wife Michiko on the next Monday, before they go to civil service the next day the marriage with Komuro completes. By marrying a commoner, Mako leaves the imperial court.
For years there have been reports in Japan that the mother of her future husband 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 amounting to the equivalent of a million euros – which the princess is now giving up.
Mako and Komuro want to live their lives in freedom and therefore want to leave Japan. You want to move to the USA after you get married. Komuro went there to study law after the previously announced wedding with Mako was canceled in 2018. He recently finished his studies there, passed the bar exam in New York and already has a position at a US law firm. Komuro had recently returned from the United States to marry Mako – besieged by hordes of gossip reporters. Even about Komuro wearing a ponytail on arrival, Japan’s media raged. When Komuro met his future in-laws at the beginning of the week and, for the first time in three years, his Mako, he was wearing his hair as usual. dpa
