Engagement & Marriage of Princess Mako and Kei Komuro: September 2017 - 2021


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
The bar exam

I have read that many people fail the bar exam. Mostly nerves on what to expect. John Kennedy Jr did not pass until the third try. Other well known people did the same. Komuro had a lot on his plate while taking the exam….getting married is one thing but facing the Japanese Royal Family, and his own country men who criticize anything he does is stressful. I wish him luck in the next round and that they both have a lovely and happy life. The love they have for each other has endures these past several years already. JMOO

The passing rate of this year's NY bar exam was 63%, so it is a difficult exam. However, here are some things to consider in addition to the low passing rate. There are many examples of people failing the bar on their first attempt and eventually go on to have successful careers including:

- Hillary Clinton failed the bar exam at D.C.
- Michelle Obama failed the bar exam on her first attempt
- Kamal Harris, current US V.P., failed the bar exam on her first attempt

For people who dislike Komuro, this serves as another reason to confirm their bias against him. But I ask those people what is the point of these negative articles? If you do not want Mako and Kei Komuro to take advantage of tax payer money to live their lives, then wouldn't you want Komuro to pass the bar so he can have a job, earn a salary and support Mako?
 
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Maybe it is also a bit of a "me me me" label on the Princess instead of devotion and sacrifice for "Japan". With her choice for Komuro the Princess left the Imperial House, left her uncle the Emperor, left her father the future Emperor and left her brother, another future Emperor.

Of course she did not invent that Princesses have to leave the imperial family but you never know how Japanese might value her choice to leave the imperial family for someone controversersial for many.
 
She cannot help that she was born a female and therefore has to leave the Imperial Family upon marriage. That was decided long before her birth... So, the only way she could stay to support is to give up on marriage entirely; they didn't seem to expect that from princesses before her.
 
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:previous:

Maybe it is also a bit of a "me me me" label on the Princess instead of devotion and sacrifice for "Japan". With her choice for Komuro the Princess left the Imperial House, left her uncle the Emperor, left her father the future Emperor and left her brother, another future Emperor.

Of course she did not invent that Princesses have to leave the imperial family but you never know how Japanese might value her choice to leave the imperial family for someone controversersial for many.

I highly doubt her father will ever be the Emperor; Hisahito will ascend the throne just after his uncle.

As for Mako and Kei - nowadays everyone has right to personal happiness.

All the best for them!:twohearts:
 
I highly doubt her father will ever be the Emperor; Hisahito will ascend the throne just after his uncle.

As for Mako and Kei - nowadays everyone has right to personal happiness.

All the best for them!:twohearts:

Heu... Like Albert came before Philippe, and like Charles comes before William, so comes Akishino before Hisahito. Of course Akishino possibly will be an elderly man that is no difference with Albert and Charles.
 
Heu... Like Albert came before Philippe, and like Charles comes before William, so comes Akishino before Hisahito. Of course Akishino possibly will be an elderly man that is no difference with Albert and Charles.

Exactly; when Naruhito abdicates/dies, Akishino will probably be already an elderly and fragile man, so he will probably renounce the throne to then still young and healthy Hisahito.
 
Heu... Like Albert came before Philippe, and like Charles comes before William, so comes Akishino before Hisahito. Of course Akishino possibly will be an elderly man that is no difference with Albert and Charles.

I don't think Charles and William are comparable (Charles is a different generation to his predecessor). Albert coming before Philippe is indeed comparable to the situation in Japan. However, had Baudouin died 2 decades later, I am quite sure that Philippe would have been his successor instead of Albert (who only ended up becoming the next king because his brother died relatively early and Philippe was still considered 'young' and had no family of his own yet.

So, imho it will depend on when the throne becomes vacant. If Akishino's in his eighties I see little reason for him to succeed his brother, if however, Hisahito is still in his twenties, it would be more likely that his father is the next emperor and he will follow his father instead of his uncle.
 
Moved reply to Succession and Membership Issues.

If the age at which they become too fragile to carry out an emperor's obligations is the same for Naruhito and Fumihito, then Fumihito will have a five-year period during which he remains capable.

It is a question of a reason to abdicate rather than a reason to succeed. Succession is automatic following the Imperial House Law, whereas abdication would require action from Parliament, as the Imperial House Law does not have provisions for abdication and the law passed to allow the Emperor Emeritus's abdication was a one-off.
 
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Jiji reported Crown Princess Kiko and volunteer staff made the rose bouquet Mako carried when leaving the residence.

Assuming that it was the Crown Princess who let that information become public, that seems like a gesture of affection and possibly even support towards her daughter.
 
So now they've arrived in NYC. Hopefully they will be left in peace, they've been put through enough. I wish them many years of happiness ?
 
And now we will have news about them only when they will visit Japan.

Does Japan recognize double citizenship?
 
Did I miss something? I thought Kei is on a work visa and Mako is on a spouse visa; did they apply for immigrant visas?
 
Did I miss something? I thought Kei is on a work visa and Mako is on a spouse visa; did they apply for immigrant visas?

My guess is that they are on an H1B and an H4. After some time they may apply for a Green Card and in doing so change their temporary residence status to permanent residence status.

Not sure what you consider an 'immigrant' visa.
 
Did I miss something? I thought Kei is on a work visa and Mako is on a spouse visa; did they apply for immigrant visas?

I considered the possiblity of Mako getting pregnant soon anf giving birth in the US.

According to the ius soli, applicable in the United States, this child would be an American citizen.
 
(...)

Does Japan recognize double citizenship?

By law, no. You have to renounce your Japanese citizenship if you acquired foreign one.

But it doesn't stop some people from having two passports. Just don't advertise it if you do. Which in Mako's case (and her husband too), it wouldn't look good if the media catch them doing it.

I remember reading news about some exparts going to court for their dual citizenships after living in foreign country for several years and they lost, they had to pick one nationality.
 
A person with Japanese and another nationality has to choose 1 nationality before he or she turns 22.

https://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tcon-01.html

Reaction to Mako's marriage:
- didn't know royalty could marry commoners
- 1 woman thought it was first time an Imperial family member married a commoner
- another woman thought the engagement was canceled and was surprised the marriage actually happened
- thinks Mako gave up lump-sum payment because of the pandemic
- media's portrayal of Kei Komuro
- Mako has a cute voice
 
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Thank you for your answer, Prisma, and please accept my apologies for coming back so late.
If the IHA did a background check, I fail to understand why the agency would let the money dispute remain unresolved and let this mess happen.
I do not think that the money issue could have been discovered by a background check. As you say, „Even if a background check was conducted, the matter wouldn't necessarily be found since there's no court/public record.“
I don't think the IHA is united in advancing female-led miyake. Certainly, whichever faction leaked Mako's engagement plans in 2017 revived the conversation but ultimately Mako (and Ayako surprisingly) left the Imperial family anyway. No doubt there are traditionalists within the IHA who still frown upon the abdication and Mako's marriage/partner.
I agree in that there are several factions in the IHA. But I also think that the emperor has a lot of influence on what they do. Usually, it is left to anybody´s guess what his opinions and goals are. But in this case I found it rather obvious that then Emperor Akihito wanted to see the issue of imperial workload solved before he stepped down. At the time, his abdication was discussed in the media along with the question of the status of female imperial family members. We know that the emperor was behind at least the idea of abdication because he had to go so far as to publicly say so. But it doesn´t seem a stretch to assume that he also wished for a solution to the problem of the shrinking imperial family.
The overwhelming public pressure finally forced the government to take at least the abdication issue seriously. They put off the debate on female-led miyake, though, because nobody wants to take responsibility for tackling the controversial succession issue.
As I have said before it was my impression that Mako´s engagement was made public at the time because the emperor and the empress hoped that the romantic love story might also serve to enhance public pressure to further female-led miyake. In my opinion, that was a very good strategy, in fact, the best possible. But as soon as the ex-fiancé came forward, they knew that it was over, not so much because of the money issue but because the ex-fiancé had the indecency of talking to the press. Independent of Kei´s personal responsibility or knowledge in the money matter, I think they decided that with this sort of „stepfather“ he could not become an imperial family member. And I think that they were, unfortunately, right on this one.

If a royal has a close relative or friend who is willing to talk to the media that is generally a permanent pr nightmare because you know they might talk to the press again and again as long as they live and there is nothing you can do about it. (It does not matter if it is true or false what they say as long as it makes for a good story or at least a clickbait headline). But the situation for Mako would have been even worse than for your „average royal“ because Japanese traditionalists, for fear of a female-line emperor, would have done everything in their power to attack a princess who kept her imperial status, along with her husband. Kei - because of the talkative ex-fiancé - would have been an easy target for them. (Actually, he was/is an easy target.) So I think that at the time Mako´s parents and grandparents agreed that she was needed in the family and that she would inevitably have to give up Komuro. They probably did not tell her so directly because that is not the Asian way but they acted accordingly: instead of remaining neutral and just wait, they made things worse for Komuro by criticizing him for not having forewarned them (Empress Michiko), by asking for an explanation (Akishino) and by preventing Mako from defending him. Considering that Japanese royals usually serenely ignore all disagreeable issues and have all the instruments for doing so (the vetting of journalists´ questions etc.) I find this quite remarkable. But it does make sense if they had decided that Mako had to give up Komuro and if they wanted to gain public understanding and applause for her sacrifice. Which imo was the case.
According to Yomuri/The Japan News, the grand steward wasn't even aware of Kei Komuro until shortly before the engagement news.
As I said I think that Mako´s engagement was meant to elicit support for princesses keeping their status, so I have a really hard time believing that they did not check Komuro´s background to some extent. But maybe they did not trust the head of the IHA with doing it. I do think that there are quite a few members of the IHA who think that the imperial family should marry only members of the old elite (Gakushuin and all that). Maybe the then head of the IHA was one of them. Or maybe he did know about Komuro and does not want to admit it now. (I am, unfortunately, too late, so I cannot read the article.)

Oh and to make this clear: I do not think that the Emperor Emeritus wants an empress regnant or the succession of an emperor through the maternal line. But he knows that Hisahito cannot do all the royal work by himself and will need his family to support him, practically as well as emotionally and that is why he wants his granddaughters to keep their status. That ship has unfortunately sailed imo if there ever has been a chance. But I do think that the Emperor Emeritus - and he, of all people, should know - is right in that a Japanese emperor who leads a very isolated and stressful life needs family support around in order to stay emotionally healthy. A distant cousin cannot offer that even if he happens to have the „right“ blood.
There was plenty of time for Mako or her parents (or family aide) to request/suggest a background check.
There was plenty of time and, as I said, I am sure they did some sort of check. But they naturally do not want to admit that now after all those tabloid stories about the suicides in Komuro´s family... They do not want to be asked why they did not stop the engagement when they got to know about that.
Again, I do not think that anyone knew about the money issue. I think that the ex-fiancé did not expect the money back when they separated because he knew too well that Kei´s mother did not have it and would not be able to pay it back anyway, and so he let it go. But when he learned that Kei would marry a princess with a huge dowry he thought that they now could have the decency of paying him his money back (which is a comparatively very small sum). I do not think that he was malicious, I just suppose that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer and did not understand that he was ruining his own chances of getting the money back by demanding it in such a public way and thereby embarrassing the imperial family. Which led said imperial family to the conclusion that he had no manners and no decency and therefore presented an incalculable risk to them.
 
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From her father's press conference, he seems very understandably protective of Mako, or just pretty mad at the media and the internet, or both. (And perhaps is not quite so fond of or close with Kei, but that's reasonable.). Posting this here because it seems like most of the conversation is still about Mako and the marriage rather than the Crown Prince or current events.

I suppose Akishino was the remaining person's opinion we could also expect, unless the Emperor says anything publicly — which doesn't seem too likely.
 
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