Earlier this morning, Princess Mako of the Japanese imperial family finally tied the knot with her college sweetheart, Kei Komuro. The event marks the end of a long and tumultuous road to the altar that will now see Mako forgo her status as a royal, reject her $1.4 million dowry, and likely move to New York to begin a new life as a normal citizen.
In lieu of the televised spectacle that would typically accompany a Japanese royal wedding, the nuptials instead took place in the modest surroundings of a Tokyo registry office. A press conference in which the couple responded to five preapproved questions from the nation’s media served as the only public-facing element of the day’s proceedings.
Since meeting Komuro during her time at the International Christian University in Tokyo in the early 2010s, Mako’s choice of suitor has been roundly criticized by much of the country’s tabloid media for his humble origins, highlighting the disproportionate pressure placed on women in the imperial family. After their engagement was first announced in 2017, a planned wedding in November 2018 was postponed due to a financial dispute between Komuro’s mother and her former fiancé, with the latter reportedly accusing the former of failing to pay back a 4 million yen ($36,000) loan, despite Komuro and his mother’s belief that the money was a gift.
The subsequent backlash, which Komuro countered with a 28-page document explaining the financial arrangement and his plan to pay the money back, led to a social media firestorm, with Mako eventually being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the scandal earlier this year. “Kei is irreplaceable for me. For us, marriage is a necessary choice to live while cherishing our hearts,” Mako said with unusual candor at today’s press conference. “The flow of arbitrary criticism of Kei’s actions, as well as one-sided speculation that ignored my feelings, made falsehoods somehow seem like reality and turn into an unprovoked story that spread.”
The heightened level of interest in Princess Mako’s wedding arrangements is partly the result of the imperial family’s declining numbers and looming succession crisis, a problem exacerbated by the 1,500-year-old institution’s refusal to allow women to inherit the throne. As the niece of Emperor Naruhito and daughter of his younger brother, Crown Prince Fumihito, Mako’s proximity to the throne has led to concern that the only eligible successor of her generation is now her 15-year-old brother, Prince Hisahito.
Mako is not the first imperial princess to relinquish her place in the royal family for marriage, with the most recent being her aunt Sayako, the only daughter of previous Emperor Akihito, who married a town planner in 2005. While polls indicate that a majority of the Japanese public are in favor of allowing women to become emperor and remain in the royal family after marrying a common citizen, a highly vocal conservative minority is staunchly opposed to any changes to the rules of succession for what is believed to be the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world.
As the dust settles now that the marriage has finally taken place, it seems unlikely that these conversations will end any time soon. But for Mako and her husband, today will hopefully come as some relief after the four-year saga of scrutiny from the tabloid media and the country’s conservative forces. Since completing his degree at Fordham Law School and taking the New York bar exam earlier this year, Komuro has reportedly already begun working at a top law firm in Manhattan, where Mako will join him after she applies for her first passport as a Japanese citizen in the coming weeks.
Many have compared Mako’s departure from the imperial family to that of another high-profile severing of royal ties—namely, that of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—but aside from the Japanese couple’s move to the U.S., the comparisons are likely to end there. Despite Mako’s reputation for forging her own path, the culture of sacrifice and obedience that characterizes the imperial family will continue in a different form, with most expecting the former princess to keep a low profile as she embarks on her new chapter in New York. In her own words from the press conference earlier today: “What I would like is to just lead a peaceful life in my new environment.”