Welcome to the forums, and thank you for your contribution!
With respect, however, I consider this thread to have been more balanced than you portray it to be. With the exception of the bullying and work behavior allegations (which are interesting, and please feel free to add further information about it or any of the other topics), the essentials of all of the other points and arguments you mentioned in your post have been reported on and discussed within this thread (and for those of us who do not read Japanese, Prisma has done a good job of summarizing a variety of reports and commentary, including linking to the unedited text of statements). Both supporters and critics of Kei Komuro have expressed their views in the debate.
I fully agree with you on the importance of not condescendingly characterizing the Japanese public. However, for that very same purpose, one should be cautious about overgeneralization, as there is a diversity of opinions among the Japanese public, as there is in any country. As can been seen from the articles which were posted here, some members of the Japanese public do not trust Kei Komuro and believe he should not be permitted to marry Princess Mako, some do not trust him but believe the couple should be permitted to choose their own spouses, some pity him, some applaud him, and some are indifferent.
Isn’t that the problem? Those who cannot read Japanese are relying on one person, who has supported Komuro since the beginning of the announced engagement, to handpick and summarize articles for them. That the posters here were completely unaware of the bullying allegations, which received widespread public attention in Japan, speaks to how one-sided the reporting has been in this forum.
Two victims and one parent have spoken directly to Bunshun and accused Kei Komuro of bullying during his elementary to high school years. Since they were published months or years ago (Victim A’s story was first published in 2019), Bunshun’s full articles on the bullying allegations are now behind a paywall or only available in print, but other news sources have repeatedly published quotes from the interviews, and preview articles and video from Bunshun are still accessible.
Preview article from Bunshun about their interview with the high school bullying victim: https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/42509
Yahoo News version of the above article: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ef8a3395451a0f80727e5db72e5db019b23185aa
Bunshun article with some of the bullying allegations made by A and the father of the third-grade student (behind a paywall): https://bunshun.jp/denshiban/articles/b267
Promotional video by Bunshun with footage of their interview with A: youtube.com/watch?v=wlIzEyPxEIk
Article from Business Journal with quotes from the Bunshun article about the bullying of the third-grader: https://biz-journal.jp/2021/01/post_202653.html
Article from Business Journal with quotes from Bunshun articles about the bullying of A and the high school student: https://biz-journal.jp/2020/12/post_198853.html
If you would like to read the full articles on the bullying allegations, they can be found in the 2019 May 11, 2020 December 24, and 2021 January 11 issues of Weekly Bunshun.
During recess when he was in the fifth grade, Komuro took a drawing by a third-grader that had been praised by a teacher in Komuro’s class, and stomped on it. (At the time, Komuro had been taking art lessons in Kanagawa prefecture and may have been prompted by jealousy.) According to the father of the third-grader, when his wife called Komuro’s mother to relay what had happened, Komuro’s mother became aggressive and claimed her son would never do such a thing. Komuro’s mother was eventually forced to admit her son was responsible and apologized as there were witnesses to her son’s actions. However, the bullying didn’t end there.
Komuro and Victim A were in the school soccer club and took the train to school together every day. Korumo would call A the night before to tell him in which train car and at what time they should meet in the morning at their departure station to go to school, but one day, Komuro did not show and A could not find him. When A arrived at their destination station, Komuro was waiting there with the school bully and laughing at him. This continued every day. Eventually, A realized that Komuro was always riding in the neighboring train car, watching and laughing at A as A searched for him on the train each morning.
Komuro and his group of friends would also steal and hide A’s scissors and sewing tools for class.
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[FONT="]For “soccer practice,” during recess, Komuro had A play goal keeper while he and the rest of their soccer group would kick balls at A at close range at the same time. When A could no longer stand their game and began to play with another classmate, Komuro and the group would yell at A from the school window and tell him that he was “gross” and shouldn’t come to school anymore. The bullying continued, causing A to frequently stay home from school until they graduated. Instead of attending the middle school associated with their elementary school (the schools were affiliated with the Kunitachi College of Music), A went to a different middle school to avoid the possibility of encountering Komuro and the soccer group again. Still, A’s anxiety did not wane and during university, he sought therapy and was told that the bullying he received from Komuro could be the origin of his psychological trauma. [/FONT]
Bunshun contacted other classmates and guardians from the elementary school, and the majority confirmed what the father of the third grader and A had claimed. A also provided Bunshun their elementary school album and screenshots of messages he had received from Komuro to prove he was being truthful. A confronted Komuro about the bullying when he and his mother received requests from media to talk about Komuro’s character as a childhood friend and classmate, after the planned engagement to Princess Mako was announced. Komuro thanked A for his friendship and acknowledged that A’s parents significantly helped him and his mother after his father’s death (according to Komuro’s messages, A’s father even took him to baseball games while A’s mother provided emotional support to Mrs Komuro), but would not apologize for nor acknowledge the bullying despite A’s emotional reply.
When Komuro was in the fourth grade, his father committed suicide and his maternal grandfather did the same a week later (and if we are to believe the weeklies, so did his maternal grandmother a year later). According to A, immediately following the death of Komuro’s father, his mother’s new boyfriend also began to show up at their school. It is very possible that the bullying in elementary school was Komuro acting out in pain and he was still a young child at the time, but he continued bullying others into high school.
From their first year in middle school to their first year of high school, Komuro and his friend bullied a female student. He would call the girl “pig,” “fat,” and “ugly.” He would also oink and say “the pig passed by” when he and the girl crossed paths. The bullying continued for four years and only got worse in high school, until the female student dropped out and confined herself to her home for two years. Someone associated with the Canadian International School (Komuro’s middle and high school) told Bunshun that a female student at their school had dropped out due to malicious bullying from a group of five boys that included Komuro. Bunshun spoke to two of the boys from the group who said that the bullying story was not factual, but did not expand further.
Bunshun then approached the victim, who confirmed the allegations, but clarified that it was the leader of Komuro’s clique and Komuro (the second-in-command), not the two boys Bunshun spoke to, who bullied her.
Bunshun tried to contact the group leader and Komuro about the bullying allegations, but neither responded and Komuro’s representative also would not respond. Komuro did not address any of the allegations in his 28-page document, either.
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