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Japanese Princess Mako married a commoner and on Tuesday lost her royal status in a union that has divided public opinion and was delayed more than three years by a financial dispute with her new mother-in-law.
The marriage document for Mako and Kei Komuro was filed Tuesday morning by a palace official and is now official, the Imperial Household Agency said. They will make statements at a press conference in the afternoon but will not answer any questions as Mako showed fear and discomfort with the questions asked, the agency said.
Mako is recovering from what palace doctors described earlier this month as a form of traumatic stress disorder she developed after seeing negative media coverage of her marriage, particularly attacks on komuro.
There will be no wedding banquet and there were no other rituals for the couple. Many people do not celebrate their wedding, the agency said.
Mako, who turned 30 three days before the wedding, is a niece of Emperor Naruhito. She and Komuro were classmates at Tokyo International Christian University when they announced in September 2017 that they were planning to get married the following year, but the financial dispute arose two months later and the wedding was suspended.
The argument is about whether the money his mother received from her ex-fiancé was a loan or a gift. Mako’s father sought clarification from Komuro and he wrote a statement defending himself, but it is still unclear whether the dispute has been completely resolved.
Komuro, 30, went to New York to study law in 2018 and only returned to Japan last month. His hair tied in a ponytail caught attention and only contributed to criticism as a bold statement for someone who married a princess of the traditional imperial family.
Mako is no longer royal, but has now adopted her husband’s last name – a problem that affects most other Japanese women as the law requires married couples to use a surname.
Mako has also refused the 140 million yen ($ 1.23 million) dowry she was entitled to for abandoning the imperial family, palace officials said. She is the first member of the imperial family since World War II to fail to receive payment while marrying a commoner.
On Tuesday morning, she left the palace in a light blue dress, holding a bouquet of flowers. She bowed to her parents Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko and her sister Kako in front of the residence, then the sisters hugged.
The imperial house law only allows male succession. Female members of the royal family must give up their royal status if they marry a commoner – a practice that has resulted in the decline of the royal family and a lack of heirs to the throne.
After Naruhito, only Akishino and his son Prince Hisahito are in the line of succession. A government-appointed panel of experts is discussing a stable succession to the Japanese monarchy, but conservatives are still opposed to women or women to take over the leadership of the imperial family.
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