Princess Mako marries her college boyfriend, Kei Komuro, at the cost of her royal privileges.
Japan’s royal Princess Mako has said she is happy forfeiting her royal status just to be with her commoner boyfriend, Kei Komuro.
Under Japanese laws, female imperial family members forfeit their royal status upon marriage to a “commoner.” The law does not apply to men. They can marry ‘commoners’ and still retain their royal status.
Princess Mako also skipped the usual rites of a royal wedding and turned down a payment of 150 million yen (around £985,000) offered to royal females upon their departure from the family. She is the first female member of the royal family to decline both.
Princess Mako, dressed in a pale blue dress and holding a bouquet of flowers, left her home around 10am on Tuesday October 25, after bowing to her parents Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko and hugging her younger sister Princess Kako. She waved to her parents before her car left the royal family’s residence.
The couple registered their marriage on Tuesday by signing paperwork at a local office in Tokyo’s Akasaka estate in the morning, according to the Imperial Household Agency.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Princess Mako apologised for any trouble brought to people by her marriage.
“I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused and I am grateful for those… who have continued to support me,” she said, according to an NHK report. “For me, Kei is irreplaceable – marriage was a necessary choice for us,” Princess Mako said.
For Kumuro, he loves Princess Mako and wants to spend his life with her.
The newlyweds are expected to address the media in a news conference later in the day.
The couple is expected to move to the US – where Komuro works as a lawyer – after marriage.
