Japan’s royal wedding falls flat as Princess Mako to marry commoner amid controversy

With just hours to go until their wedding, Japan’s public remains widely hostile to the idea of Princess Mako marrying her university sweetheart Kei Komoru

Their long delayed nuptials have been scaled back, yet polls suggest most Japanese are still opposed – as the tabloid press keeps up its relentless speculation

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Japan‘s Princess Mako pictured on the Akasaka Imperial Estate in Tokyo earlier this month. Photo: The Imperial Household Agency of Japan via AP

Published: 12:45pm, 25 Oct 2021Updated: 10:11pm, 25 Oct 2021

For the first time in 28 years, a central member of Japan’s imperial family is getting married on Tuesday – yet with the royal wedding just hours away, excitement is largely absent, no crowds are gathering in the capital to wish the young couple well and the impending nuptials are barely causing a stir in the country’s mainstream media.

Instead, the public remains widely hostile to Princess Mako’s choice of husband, her university sweetheart Kei Komuro, as Japan’s tabloid press keeps up its relentless speculation and innuendo about their wedding.

News magazines over the weekend reported that the princess was “in tears” when she was reunited last week in a private meeting with her 30-year-old commoner boyfriend for the first time in three years. They suggested that Mako will have to remain in Japan for some weeks before being able to join her new husband in the United States and aired complaints that it is costing the Japanese taxpayer dearly to protect Komuro’s family – including the installation of a police box directly outside his mother’s home where he has been staying since he returned from New York late last month.

Kei Komuro leaves his mother’s house in Yokohama to meet Princess Mako’s parents last week. Photo: Kyodo

Mako is set to move out of the imperial residence on Tuesday, after an official has submitted legal papers to register her marriage to Komuro that morning. The couple then plan to hold a press conference later in the day.

She is expected to live in a Tokyo condominium before leaving for the US, Kyodo News reported, and will also need to apply for a regular passport to replace the diplomatic one typically issued to members of Japan’s imperial family.