But since Japan’s Princess Mako and Kei Komuro announced their engagement in 2017, their union has been mired in scandal, public disapproval, and tabloid frenzy.
The ponytail may not have caused a stir in the West, but people in Japan are expected to reflect their position and role through their actions and words. According to Hitomi Tonomura, a women’s and gender studies professor at the University of Michigan, people saw the ponytail as a sign that Komuro was not conforming to social expectations.
“If he was a singer or artist, that would be fine, but people think he is not ‘lawyer-like’ nor suitable for a man who would marry a royal woman,” she said.
Komuro cut her ponytail ahead of Tuesday’s wedding. But this was not the end of it.
While most royal weddings are marked by pomp and circumstance, it will be a silent affair at a registry office, followed by a news conference, then Mako’s departure from the royal family and a move to the United States. Some royal watchers say it’s a sign of the times for minor royals, who are no longer satisfied with what they can do — and who they can marry.
Inappropriate for a princess?
As a child, the former emperor and the first-born grandson of the empress won early victories over the masses. Mikiko Taga, a Japanese imperialist journalist, said, “His manners are impeccable. People saw him as an absolute royal.”
Princess Mako was expected to attend the private Gakushin University with other members of the wealthy aristocracy, but she opted to study a bachelor’s degree in arts and cultural heritage at the International Christian University in Tokyo.
It was here that he met Komuro, who had been born three weeks before him in October 1991 in a very modest family.
Princess Mako’s study took her in another direction.
At a crowded news conference, the princess said she was attracted by Komuro’s “smile as bright as the sun” and learned over time that he was “an honest, strong-minded, hardworking worker with a big heart.”
The Japanese media dubbed him the “Prince of the Sea” after the character he played in a beach tourism campaign for the city of Fujisawa, south of Tokyo.
Everything was going well, but then came the first sign of troubled waters.
The couple had planned to get married in 2018, but their wedding was postponed. The royal family said the delay was due to a “lack of preparation”, but others suspect it was because Komuro’s mother failed to pay the $36,000 she had borrowed from her former fiancé.
“While in the United States, we think the mother’s occupation is unrelated to an adult man, Komuro Kei, in Japan people considered it problematic and changed him from a good, kind, true young man to a calculated opportunist, who later I was in it. Prestige and possibly money,” said gender studies expert Tonomura.
an unconventional union
It is not the usual way for a Japanese royal to get a chance at university for a wedding.
Kaori Hayashi, media studies expert and executive vice president of the University of Tokyo, said royal partners are usually carefully selected from within traditional circles with whom the royal family interacts.
Additionally, in Japan, the perception still exists that single mothers are unable to produce suitable children, said gender studies specialist Tonomura.
“In Japan, there is also an acute misconduct that morally and financially denigrates single mothers,” she said.
“There is a traditional sort of sex-segregated role for men and women that is played not only in the royal family, but in many institutions here,” said Nancy Snow, a professor of public diplomacy at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.
The perceived financial troubles of Komuro’s mother have corrupted the ardent imperial image of the royal household, which should ideally appear symbolically pure and exist for the spiritual well-being of the Japanese people, Tonomura said.
For example, this view is held by YouTuber Kei Kobuta of Imperial Affairs, who last Saturday organized a march in Tokyo that was attended by about 100 people. He said that many royal audiences like him regard Princess Mako as a sister or daughter who has made the wrong choice.
“There are a lot of doubts and doubts about Kei Komuro and his mother, and people are afraid that the image of the royal family will be tarnished,” Kobuta said.
the pressure of royal life
Years of speculation and abuse have taken their toll on Princess Mako.
Earlier this month, Mahal revealed that she suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“The princess feels pessimistic and finds it difficult to feel happy because of her constant fear of the destruction of her life,” Suyoshi Akiyama, director of NTT Medical Center Tokyo, Princess Mako’s psychiatrist, told the media at the Imperial Household Agency.
The princess is not the first Japanese woman to feel the pressure of royal life in the royal family. Japan’s Empress Masako married Emperor Naruhito in 1993, abandoning a high-profile diplomatic career for life in the imperial household. ns The transition was difficult for Masako, who had long struggled with an illness that doctors described as an “adjustment disorder.”
“Each case of a female member of the royal family battling mental illness involves different circumstances,” said Ken Ruf, director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University and author of The Imperial House in Post-War Japan. “
“In the case of the then Crown Princess Masako, it revolved almost entirely around her being blamed for not producing the expected male heir,” he said.
Fast forward to the case of Princess Mako, and it revolves entirely around her marriage, which has had some marriages at the level of scrutiny, especially when you consider that as soon as she formally leaves the royal house. . Will get out married.”
Under Japanese law, members of the royal household must renounce their titles and leave the palace if they marry a commoner. Since there are only 18 members of the royal family, Princess Mako is not the first to leave. The last royal to do so was his aunt, Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito, when she married town planner Yoshiki Kuroda in 2005.
As a woman, Princess Mako was not in line to the throne – Japan’s only male succession law prevents this from happening. His role in royal life was to support his male relatives.
As the late royal, Princess Mako was entitled to a one million dollar payment, but in an effort to appease a disapproved public, she has decided to withdraw it.
After marriage, she will move to New York City, where Komuro works at a law firm.
“It’s a dramatic exit,” Roof said. “It’s a warning to the Imperial House. I mean, she’s clearly fed up.”
a quiet life
Princess Mako and Komuro’s exit from the royal spotlight is being compared to that of another famous couple – Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
Markle’s engagement to Britain’s Prince Harry sparked controversy when it was first announced in November 2017. Some believed that a biracial, divorced American actress had no place in the British royal family.
But while Princess Mako’s The “dramatic” exit from the royal family is somewhat equated to “megaxit” – the term for the British couple’s departure – historian Roof said, adding that the similarities end there.
“Members of the British royal family grow up with great wealth. And they also spend a lot of time directly raising money for a lot of charitable causes, so learn how that works. So when Harry and Meghan moved to America, By telling different stories about the royal family, they’ve managed to make millions and millions of dollars, all while wrapping themselves in feel-good, left-wing causes,” Roof said.
“I think Mako and her future husband are going to behave like this after the wedding. In fact, I think what’s going to happen, they’re going to disappear.”
According to royal affairs journalist Tyga, the days of asking someone to perform the duties they were born with are coming to an end.
“That’s why I think it’s important that two different royals, East and West, choose to live the way they want,” she said.
“It marks the beginning of a new era.”
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