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Opinion split as princess loses status

JAPAN’S Princess Mako has officially lost her royal status after marrying a commoner in a union that split public opinion in the country. The marriage document for Mako and Kei Komuro was submitted by a palace official yesterday morning and is now official, the Imperial Household Agency said.

They made statements at a press conference in the afternoon, but did not take questions because Mako showed fear and unease at the questions that would be posed.

Mako is recovering from what palace doctors described earlier this month as a form of traumatic stress disorder that she developed after seeing negative media coverage about their marriage, especially attacks on her now-husband.

Mako is a niece of Emperor Naruhito. She and Komuro were classmates at Tokyo’s International Christian University when they announced in September 2017 they intended to marry the following year, but a financial dispute involving her new mother-in-law surfaced two months later and the wedding was suspended.

The dispute involves whether money Komuro’s mother received from her former fiance was a loan or a gift. Mako’s father asked Komuro to clarify, and he wrote a statement defending himself but it is still unclear if the dispute has been fully resolved.

No longer a royal, Mako has now taken the surname of her husband – an issue affecting most other Japanese women since the law requires married couples to use one surname. Mako has also declined the 140 million yen (£893,000) dowry to which she was entitled for leaving the imperial family, palace officials said.