The engagement of Princess Mako and former classmate Kei Komuro was announced in 2017.
Tokyo:
Japan’s Imperial Household Agency (IHA) is expected to announce Princess Mako’s marriage to a former college classmate as soon as Friday, the media said, after years of intense scrutiny that found her engagement an ineffective thrown into the light.
Broadcaster NHK has said details have yet to be confirmed, but the couple will be out of a one-million-dollar lump sum payment to which the princess is entitled to relinquish her royal status.
The engagement of Kei Komuro, the 29-year-old granddaughter of then-Emperor Akihito and former classmate, was announced in 2017. But the wedding was postponed after reports of a financial dispute between Komuro’s mother and her former fiancée.
The report said the couple will register their marriage at a local government office, adjusting royal family records that Princess Mako has left it.
An agency spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the IHA, which has not made an official announcement on marriage or lump sum payments, had no comment.
The fiancé, enrolled at New York Law School, flew into Tokyo on Monday for the first time in three years, with long hair tied up in a pony tail, a style that provoked commentary from mid-day television shows and tabloids.
Controversy over the wedding plans began when a newspaper claimed that the mother and son had failed to pay a debt of approximately $35,000 by a former fiancé of Komuro’s mother.
Komuro has said that his mother’s former fiancé gave the money as a gift, not a loan.
The IHA has postponed several engagement ceremonies following the scandal and has no plans to hold them.
Royal family expert Akinori Takamori, who is a lecturer at Kokugakuin University in the capital, said tabloid coverage had become a national concern, spreading across broadsheet newspapers.
This escalated when members of the royal family were forced to speak up and gain public understanding.
“Even the tiniest details like his hair became fodder for the television of the day,” Takamori said, adding that he felt that the extent of media coverage of Komuro’s family life also “violates human rights”. Might be possible.
A recent survey by the daily Mainichi showed that 38% of the respondents supported marriage, 35% opposed it, and 26% showed no interest.
“While the royal family should be a symbol of unity for the country, it is not desirable to be divided in this matter,” Takamori said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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