Princess Mako to Marry Tuesday, Leaving Imperial Family

Tokyo, Oct. 25 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Princess Mako will marry commoner Kei Komuro, who works at a New York law firm, on Tuesday, leaving the Imperial Family. The princess, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, and Komuro will submit their marriage registration to a municipal office Tuesday morning through a staff employee of the Imperial Household Agency. In the afternoon, Princess Mako, 30, a niece of Emperor Naruhito, will hold a press conference as a commoner with Komuro, also 30, at a hotel in Tokyo. Under an Imperial House Law provision, a female member of the Imperial Family will lose her status of the family upon marriage. Based on decisions by Emperor Naruhito and Crown Prince Akishino, marriage-related ceremonies and rituals will not be held for Princess Mako and Komuro in light of various public opinions about their marriage due to a money issue between Komuro's mother and her former fiance. It is the first time since the end of World War II that no such events will take place for the marriage of a female Imperial Family member. Also, Princess Mako will not receive a lump-sum marriage allowance, based on her own wishes, becoming the first female member of the family not being given such money upon marriage. On Monday, Princess Mako visited Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, her grandparents, at their residence in Tokyo's Minato Ward and bid farewell to them. It was the first time for her to meet with the grandparents since March last year. Tuesday's press conference will be attended by a total of some 40 people from the press club at the Imperial Household Agency, the Japan Magazine Publishers Association and the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. Princess Mako and Komuro met for the first time when they were students at International Christian University and were informally engaged in September 2017 after dating for some five years. Their marriage-related rituals and ceremonies were planned to be held in 2018. Following the revelation of the money issue, the postponement of their marriage was announced in February 2018. On Oct. 1 this year, the agency formally announced that they will marry. Princess Mako will be the ninth female Imperial Family member to marry in the postwar period and the first since the marriage in 2018 of former Princess Ayako, now Ayako Moriya, the third daughter of the late Prince Takamado, a cousin of Emperor Emeritus Akihito. The number of Imperial Family members will fall to 17 after the departure of Princess Mako, the fewest since the start of the country's Heisei era in 1989, when the Emperor Emeritus, the father of Emperor Naruhito, ascended the throne. END