Royal marriage roadblock lifted: Kei Komuro, fiancé of Japanese Princess Mako, ‘has resolved financial woes’
- The financial dispute involving Kei Komuro’s educational expenses had forced his marriage to Princess Mako be delayed
Kei Komuro, the longtime boyfriend of Japan’s Princess Mako, will soon announce his family has resolved financial issues that have caused the couple’s marriage to be postponed, sources close to the matter said Monday.
The 27-year-old Komuro will release a written statement, apparently responding to a remark by Prince Fumihito, the father of the princess and younger son of Emperor Akihito, that Komuro and his family should make a certain response if they want the wedding to go ahead.
In the statement, Komuro will say he has “confirmed all of the financial issues were resolved,” according to the sources. He will also apologise for causing “trouble to many as I did not explain clearly.”
Princess Mako, also 27, has been informed that Komuro will release the statement. They maintain a strong intention to marry, the sources said.
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The couple announced their engagement in September 2017 and said their wedding would take place in November 2018.
But the Imperial Household Agency said in February last year that the couple would push back the schedule until 2020 following a string of reports that Komuro’s mother was involved in a dispute over money, including her son’s educational expenses, which her former fiancé shouldered.
The former fiancé has said he lent Komuro’s mother some 4 million yen (US$36,500) between 2010 and 2012, the period when they were engaged. After they broke off the engagement, the former fiancé asked the mother to pay back the loan, but the Komuro side claimed the money had been donated.
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Komuro, a paralegal at a Tokyo law firm, started a three-year course at Fordham University’s law school in New York from August, aiming to pass the state’s bar examination.
Prince Fumihito has adopted a strict stance on the postponement of his daughter’s marriage. “If the two still have feelings for marriage, there should be responses accordingly,” he said at a press conference in November.
