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

[Junjun]

Finance of Akishino Family : $1.17m annually, $45m of construction fee

Now I share something about finance of Crown Prince Akishino and his family before I’m expelled from this forum using 粗探し.

.
As I mentioned before, Akishino receives 91.5m JPY ($0.83 m) annually as his wage (i.e. IF expense) from government (i.e. taxmoney), when 15.25m JPY ($0.14m) is paid to Crown Princess Kiko, 9.15m JPY ($0.08m) to Princess Mako and Kako each, 3.05m JPY ($0.03m) to Prince Hisahito.
In total, annual income of whole Akishino family is 128.1m JPY ($1.17m). Just for Akishino and Kiko, 106.75m JPY ($0.97m)

Again here is government document about this issued by Imperial Household Agency (IHA)

https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/about/seido/seido08.html

To my surprise, the expense for Akishino ballooned three times when he became Crown Prince. (so at the ending of the document there is a note that explain the calculation of Akishino’s expense.) Originally, a Crown Prince’s accounting had been categorized within that of Inner Court IF i.e.内定皇族, which is composed of Emperor family, Crown Prince family, and Emperor Emeritus family. But he refused to become ICIF though he became Crown Prince, instead, he remained an individual monarchy and start receiving 3 times of original expense.

Annual expense of ICIF is 3.05m JPY ($3m) for this year, which is shared by Emperor Emeritus Akihito family and Emperor Naruhito family, as was when they were Emperor and Crown Prince. Empress Masako has often worn same dresses since she was Crown Princess, but I don’t know what it means.

Here is IHA's document about the expense of ICIF:

https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/about/seido/seido08.html

Costume fee for attending ceremonies is sort into another accounting title.


Then Akishino family is now reported to repairing and temporarily building gorgeous palaces which costs total of 4300m JPY ($39.19m).

Here is a report on this issued by Bunshun Online on 12 Apr 2019:

https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/11411


However, the total cost seemed to jump to some 5,000m JPY (some $45m) according to the page below which shows the final contract price issued by IHA in April of 2020.

https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/page/chotatsu/show/1628

This is supposed to include the cost of some 4,300m JPY (some $ 39 m) for repairing a palace of Akishino family and of some 700m JPY (some $6.4m) for repairment of that for Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emeritus, since the temporary palace for Akishino family had been completed already and Akishino family had moved there according to the Bunshun’s story.

I do not know whether these are expensive or not compared with those of other RF members… Can anyone introduce what will take place with these cases in your country?

Very few magazine articles were found on the construction fee of Akishino palaces, where no newspaper article available. Are you Okay Japanese freedom of expression and publishment.



And then, they're planning to found female monarch or Kojo title for Mako or Kako, which cost 15.25m JPY for the former and 6m JPY for the latter a year.


And again, sorry for my poor English and insufficiency of evidence.
I hope it helps somehow you to understand the situation.

 

[W.Y.CII]

Quick search and find it on Google (sorry for the looooooooooong link, please note that it's a PDF file and while you click it it will automatically start downloading).

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjABegQIBRAC&usg=AOvVaw0ICdwk9fC84IQ4mGb3B0dV

The articles before and after Kei's article is the winner and 2nd runner-up FYI.

 

[iceflower]

This thread has been cleaned up. A number of off-topic posts and arguments have been removed.

Please remember to stay respectful both towards the people you discuss and your fellow posters. Thank you!

 

[Junjun]

Thank you, Iceflower, for the job you did.
I appreciate you have stored deliberately the on-topic posts, and I apologize sincerely for my lack of respect for this forum which you had found and maintained.

Now I share a new magazine story issued by Daily Shincho which is supposed to reflect the whole atmosphere covering IF, IHA and the public. Its conclusion is “marriage with exit from IF”.
For the intention to inform you of something like “mood”or”air”, I quote around a half of whole story, but there may be regulation about proportion of quotation, if it is, please tell me.

The negative impact of "Kei Komuro's uproar" on Hisahito who sweared at Kiko who made a mistake."

It's been over 3 years since the engagement was postponed. During that time, Kei Komuro published the document twice, and Mako also expressed her "feelings", but the public's understanding could not be obtained. It seems that there is only a “withdrawal marriage” anymore, but what is of great concern is nothing but the negative impact on Yuhito, who will be responsible for the future.

A document written by a self-righteous young man anointed the fire in the streets. He hurriedly brought out a "solution" fire extinguisher, but it was already becoming water on the burnt stones.

However, Mr. Komuro always makes words and actions that deviate from ordinary people's thinking circuit. What surprised and disappointed the world this time was the fact that Mako, who was in the position of Naishinnō (i.e.Princess), was greatly involved in the series of troubles. If the solution is far away, the activities of the Emperor's family may be further hindered, which is not unrelated to Mr. Hisahito, who will turn 15 in September.

The Imperial Household Agency reporter said again.

"On April 9, the day after the document was published, Mako's intention was that Mr. Komuro's basic policy was confessed by a beaurocrat who manages the Crown Prince's Household, would not hand over the settlement money without discussion. In addition, Mako's own discourse was introduced about the document, "I would be grateful if anyone could understand that there were various circumstances." The fact that she was deeply involved in the trouble and was facing the other side by giving to one side came to light. "

Traditionally, the imperial family has been respected by being close to the people and sharing their thoughts at all times. It was by His Majesty the Emperor, the chief of the imperial family.

<I want to aim for the imperial family to enter the people>
(..)

In the end, it seems that “the lump sum money” will be paid with the full amount of regulated one. I don’t know whether the public will understand it…

 

[kikunohana]

Thank you @fabaunty and @Junjun, the succession in Japan is very interesting topic, though I agree with others that it is more likely to see a female monarch in Thailand than Japan, at least for now.


I wonder if Mako is super in love with Kei since she didn't leave him after all those scandals emerged. If she is very much in love with him, why not marry him already? What is she waiting for? She will lose her princess title right after marriage, so marrying now or later won't change that fact. Is she too worried about the IF or what the society thinks? If she is too worried or concerned than all she has to do is not marry Kei.

I think this is all very troubling and confusing. Royal people have married in the past against the wishes of the parents or society. Yes, some lost their succession rights and other privileges. But Mako's princessy status is already doomed unless she marries a foreign prince.

She is sticking with Kei at all costs but doesn't marry him. Wish I could know all the reasons. Yes, there's the tax payers money (she could reject it, no?), and there is people bitter about Kei (but its her life and she is free to love whom she wants to). ML got a lot of backlash about Durek, but she is still with him regardless of what people say. I know Japan has a different culture and all, but when I was there I felt that people had more freedom than other conservative countries, for example Brunei, Malaysia, Dubai, and so on.

[FONT=&quot]There are reports that Princess Mako hopes to marry Kei Komuro no later than November of this year as she will be turning 30 years old in late October. She cannot marry Komuro at this moment because he is attending law school in New York and has been there since 2018. (The engagement was officially announced in September 2017.) He may be returning this summer after taking the bar exam in July.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The couple do not currently have the means to live independently and the [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Emperor and Crown Prince Akishino have also implied that they do not want the marriage to proceed until Komuro has addressed the issues concerning him and his mother to the satisfaction of the public. An article in Shukan Josei Prime yesterday estimated that the first year of Princess Mako and Komuro's marriage could cost nearly 3 million USD in taxpayer money if they live in Japan. (When he is in Japan, Komuro has a 20-member security team to look after him, which costs 6 million yen a month. The same article also points out the financial support he has received from his law firm in Japan to cover his living expenses in New York is a loan he will have to pay back.) https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/32fff596a3c5201ba32ae9496df9817577e0208c?page=3
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Komuro just released his explanation on the loan matter last month and has since changed his mind about how he intends to settle the issue, so it is going to take more time until it is resolved, if ever. The latest news on the loan dispute is also not very promising.
[/FONT]
Latest news: The ex-fiancé’s representative told AERA (which is published by Asahi Newspaper) that Komuro’s side has yet to contact him further about settling the loan. It has been a month since Komuro claimed he would pay a settlement and his representative only texted the ex-fiancé’s representative, “We have a proposal about the settlement money” on April 12 with no further instruction. As I shared before, the paparazzi caught Mrs Komuro shopping on May 3 and she was going into work in April, so she has not been hospitalized long-term.
AERA via Yahoo News: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/67f5320de068c0a4d413b4765b231bd239527d62

 

[Happiness Always]

Interesting... I didn't know the law firm in Japan is giving Kei Komuro a loan to cover his living expenses. So... Is he receiving a paycheck, too? I'm so nosy. Or, he's taking a sabbatical so no paychecks and thus the loan?

 

[Junjun]

This time I share the comment board of the story in Yahoo! News in Japan.
I hear comments cannot be directly quoted being protected by the Copyright Act, so all I can is share the link.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/047875830597a27429173fd2018aa0256e0aa4d5/comments


Although they are all Japanese text, but you can read them using Google translation if you're interested in.

Despite the conclusion of the story I shared above, voices that call for breaking up or concerns on the criminal organization rumored to behind Komuro's mother are overwhelming on the board.

 

[kikunohana]

While I am very interested in hearing what Japanese citizens have to say on the matter I cannot help but feeling that Japanese media have a habit of depicting their royals during the last decades in a very „black and white“ sort of way - to the point of being really unfair to them. (I´ll explain that further below.)
To give an example:

I honestly don´t know anything about the NY State Bar Association (if anybody here does, I´d be interested in their input), but I seriously doubt that they would give anyone a prize who does not deserve it just because Prince Akishino wants them to.
I do not know who or what Komuro is. But it gives me pause that your dislike of him obviously goes so far that you do not seem to be willing to give him credit even for the things he does do right, according to a credible source like the NY State Bar Association. (Again, if anyone knows anything about them being generally shady or generally beholden to Japanese royalty, please feel free to correct me.) Komuro probably has his issues but I have a hard time trusting in your take on him because I do not see any of you giving him at any point the benefit of the doubt.

Kikunohana, you have basically accused Prisma of handpicking articles from a one-sided perspective. I have read many of Prisma´s postings and, to be quite frank, I do not agree with you at all. I appreciate Prisma´s contributions to this forum very much. Of course, she is not a native speaker and has to work with what she has, but I always find her perspective on things very balanced and nuanced. Prisma seems always eager to learn new things and to correct herself which makes me trust her. While I appreciate the detailed information you give, I cannot help but remark that your way of presenting it feels very biased to me. Just one small example. First you say:

You obviously criticize Komuro here for not releasing the full recording and thereby allegedly leaving the public in the dark. OK. That is one way of interpreting things.
Another one would be that Komuro did that because, while trying for a long time to resolve the matter without involving the public, he felt that at some point he had to make it clear to the ex-fiancé that if he [the ex-fiancé] chose to mislead the public any further he would run the risk of Komuro making the recording public and in this way proving him wrong. But even at that point Komuro chose to share but a small snippet of the information because he still wanted to protect the privacy of the ex-fiancé as much as possible.
Then you say:

So, first you criticize Komuro for not making the full recording public (which would have even further infringed on the ex-fiancé´s privacy], then you criticize him for having made the recording in the first place. You want to have it both ways here. Which one is it? You do not seem to care as long as it makes Komuro look bad while you - at no point – call into question what the others say who are criticizing him. They may all be peaceloving angels who always speak the truth – but we have no means of being sure of that.

[FONT=&quot]I have a longer response coming up for you and Tatiana Maria, but I would first like to address your comments about the 2012 recording because I think you may be confused or missed some important information in my posts on the subject. In my first post (326) on the recording, it was still not known that the ex-fiancé was unaware of the recording and that he had not warned the Komuros beforehand that he was going to be discussing the end of the engagement or finances. That information came out later as I outlined in 330, so I was not trying to have it "both ways" as you suggested and it is possible to criticize both the content of the transcript and Komuro's act of secretly recording the couple. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As for your privacy theory... Komuro has not made any part of the 2012 recording public and at this time, there is no way to even verify that a recording exists. He only transcribed 5 lines from the supposed recording without providing any real context. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The privacy argument has no merit because he could have, at the very least, released the audio just for those 5 lines to prove that there is an actual recording and it corresponds with what he transcribed.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In those 5 lines, all the ex-fiancé said was that he paid for “it” without the intention of being paid back or having “it” returned at the time, and all Mrs Komuro said was some variation of “Really? Are you for real” twice. Without knowing the context of the conversation, we do not know what the ex-fiancé was actually talking about or what “it” refers to, and he was using the past tense, not present tense. We already know the ex-fiancé was not asking the Komuros to return all of the money he has spent on their behalf, and he and Mrs Komuro were eventually supposed to marry. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Essentially, those 5 lines are meaningless without context and we do not even know if they were actually said.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I explained before why Komuro’s act of recording itself is problematic, but perhaps my answer was not clear enough. Komuro secretly recorded a discussion between his mother and the ex-fiancé that did not involve him, and the ex-fiancé did not give any indication beforehand that he planned to talk about ending the engagement or some other important matter, which Komuro himself confirmed, so there was no reason for Komuro to be ready to secretly record anything. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And if Komuro was so concerned about privacy, why would he think it appropriate to record a private conversation between two other individuals about the dissolution of their engagement? [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The ex-fiancé’s 2013 recording was made when Mrs Komuro and Komuro himself met the ex-fiancé to specifically (among the three of them) discuss the loan matter. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]And that recording, which I provided,[/FONT][FONT=&quot] proved that Komuro lied in his 28-page document where he included the 5 lines. Why would you assume Komuro was trying to protect the privacy of the ex-fiancé, if he has been lying about the ex-fiancé to the public in an unfavorable manner? [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Other evidence, not conjecture or opinion, which I have already outlined and linked to, has also revealed that the Komuros have been deceitful, so how is it unreasonable to question Komuro’s motives for the recording and how he has handled the loan matter? At this point, wouldn’t it be quite irresponsible to take him at his word?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Just in case you forgot, Komuro changed his mind shortly after releasing the document with the recording claim and is now saying he is going to pay a settlement to the ex-fiancé, so the 5 lines he transcribed have become even more meaningless without verification and we may never know what actually happened during that conversation.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I already linked to the document in a previous post, but here it is again: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210408/k10012963531000.html?utm_int=news-[/FONT][FONT=&quot]new_contents_latest_with-image[/FONT]

 

[kikunohana]

While I am very interested in hearing what Japanese citizens have to say on the matter I cannot help but feeling that Japanese media have a habit of depicting their royals during the last decades in a very „black and white“ sort of way - to the point of being really unfair to them. (I´ll explain that further below.)
To give an example:

I honestly don´t know anything about the NY State Bar Association (if anybody here does, I´d be interested in their input), but I seriously doubt that they would give anyone a prize who does not deserve it just because Prince Akishino wants them to.
I do not know who or what Komuro is. But it gives me pause that your dislike of him obviously goes so far that you do not seem to be willing to give him credit even for the things he does do right, according to a credible source like the NY State Bar Association. (Again, if anyone knows anything about them being generally shady or generally beholden to Japanese royalty, please feel free to correct me.) Komuro probably has his issues but I have a hard time trusting in your take on him because I do not see any of you giving him at any point the benefit of the doubt.

Kikunohana, you have basically accused Prisma of handpicking articles from a one-sided perspective. I have read many of Prisma´s postings and, to be quite frank, I do not agree with you at all. I appreciate Prisma´s contributions to this forum very much. Of course, she is not a native speaker and has to work with what she has, but I always find her perspective on things very balanced and nuanced. Prisma seems always eager to learn new things and to correct herself which makes me trust her. While I appreciate the detailed information you give, I cannot help but remark that your way of presenting it feels very biased to me. Just one small example. First you say:

You obviously criticize Komuro here for not releasing the full recording and thereby allegedly leaving the public in the dark. OK. That is one way of interpreting things.
Another one would be that Komuro did that because, while trying for a long time to resolve the matter without involving the public, he felt that at some point he had to make it clear to the ex-fiancé that if he [the ex-fiancé] chose to mislead the public any further he would run the risk of Komuro making the recording public and in this way proving him wrong. But even at that point Komuro chose to share but a small snippet of the information because he still wanted to protect the privacy of the ex-fiancé as much as possible.
Then you say:

So, first you criticize Komuro for not making the full recording public (which would have even further infringed on the ex-fiancé´s privacy], then you criticize him for having made the recording in the first place. You want to have it both ways here. Which one is it? You do not seem to care as long as it makes Komuro look bad while you - at no point – call into question what the others say who are criticizing him. They may all be peaceloving angels who always speak the truth – but we have no means of being sure of that.
Had it been just you, Kikunohana, I would have thought, you just happen to not like that Komuro guy, for whatever reason (which is, of course, fine – none of us knows him personally, so we are all free to guess).
But it seems that what you say sums up the opinion of many Japanese people. Which may or may not tell us something about how things actually are but certainly does give us some information on how the Japanese media present things. I find that really interesting, and I am grateful for this insight. So thank you all very much.

I am reminded of the time when then Crown Princess Masako was slandered for having a fancy dinner in a Mexican restaurant while skipping official duties because of her depression. (I do not remember which magazine that story was from but I remember it quite clearly.) Some time later it was known that the parents of Aiko´s classmates had been meeting at that restaurant and that then Crown Princess Masako had been there on behalf of and in support of her daughter who was struggling in school. The magazine had not included that information and had made it look as if the princess was not actually ill but just being lazy and living a luxurious life on taxpayer´s money... Everybody and their grandmother thought at the time that then Crown Prince Naruhito was stupid for not divorcing that lazy arrogant woman who could not bear him a son. Now everybody thinks Mako is stupid. Were they right then? Are they right now? Who knows....

At the same time when Crown Princess Masako was constantly criticized, Empress Michiko could do no wrong. But some fifteen years before it had been she who was harrassed by the press for allegedly bullying her staff (just as Crown Princess Kiko is now, obviously).

I think I see a pattern here. I am relieved to hear that at this point Empress Masako seems to no longer be criticized for everything she does or does not do as was the case for over a decade. But I am not happy that the media seems to have gotten hold of another poor victim instead.

I get the strong impression that the Japanese media always need some sort of scapegoat when it comes to the imperial family. At present, it´s Komuro and Mako and by extension the whole Akishino family. I admit to having a very soft spot for Mako but aside from that, I do not claim any of them to be angels. They certainly do have their shortcomings. In my book, that is ok. They are human. But it seems to me that Japanese media have a tendency to see members of the IF as either very bad or very good and cannot allow them to be grey.
(Admittedly, it´s not only the Japanese media who do that. Painting people as angels or criminals makes for good headlines all over the world.)

Part 1


[FONT=&quot]I know this is very long, but I hope readers here will bear with me because I am going to provide some concrete examples of articles that have been omitted from this thread and information unfavorable to the Komuros that had been inexplicably omitted from summaries of articles posted in this thread. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Equating a tabloid article on Crown Princess Masako’s outing to a Mexican restaurant or some unpleasant posters who unfairly slandered Princess Masako to the extensive articles that I have shared that include detailed interviews with the concerned parties, witness statements, photographic evidence (including screenshots of messages from Kei Komuro and Mrs Komuro), audio evidence, commentary by experts, and Komuro’s own words in a document made accessible to all, is rather unfortunate. Did you know that Asahi, Sankei, Yomiuri, Mainichi and other big newspapers have also used sources like weeklies on the loan matter, because those are the sources that have been doing investigative reporting on the Komuros and conducting long interviews with the ex-fiancé? Quotes from the ex-fiancé often come from his interviews with Gendai and it was a weekly with a credible leak that started this entire business. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I have been following this thread for some time and have read through its entirety more than once (and just did it again to make sure I did not imagine anything) before I chose to create an account to comment, so I hope you realize I am not commenting rashly nor basing my opinion of this thread and some of its regulars on just a few posts. I choose to comment now because Komuro released the long document on the loan dispute, the engagement matter appears to be reaching a climax, and because I only recently became aware that Prisma had been tweeting details about the Imperial Family daily, including sharing articles from Bunshun which covered the bullying allegations, and noticed they had even omitted pertinent information that portrayed the Komuros negatively from articles they summarized here. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It cannot be argued that limited Japanese ability or reluctance to read magazines and other tabloid sources is why the stories about the Komuros have been missing here because Prisma has [/FONT][FONT=&quot]admitted to searching the tabloids and twitter on Kei Komuro before in this very thread more than once. And in this thread, they had repeatedly posted articles from:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Josei Seven - [/FONT][FONT=&quot]which reported the details on Komuro’s father’s suicide, grandfather’s suicide, the Komuros’ finances, the inheritance dispute and Mrs Komuro’s mediator with a criminal background who came forward, and her former boyfriend, whose presence had also been described by A in his interview with Bunshun about the bullying and by Josei Prime, but were never shared here. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Josei Prime[/FONT][FONT=&quot] - which leaked the loan issue on December 11, 2017, which was not shared here until after the engagement was delayed and it could no longer be ignored. When Prisma did summarize those articles, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]they omitted the entire section (more than a full page) on the man Mrs Komuro dated immediately after her husband’s death (or while he was still alive, according to some reports) and supported financially. This is important information because Mrs Komuro told her ex-fiancé when she met him that her financial situation was dire and she required help, when she had supported her unemployed boyfriend while sending her son to an international school. (Post 126) https://www.jprime.jp/articles/-/11512?page=3[/FONT]

 

[kikunohana]

Part 1

[FONT=&quot]...It cannot be argued that limited Japanese ability or reluctance to read magazines and other tabloid sources is why the stories about the Komuros have been missing here because Prisma has [/FONT][FONT=&quot]admitted to searching the tabloids and twitter on Kei Komuro before in this very thread more than once. And in this thread, they had repeatedly posted articles from:[/FONT]

Part 2

[FONT=&quot]In their summary of another Josei Prime article (Post 152), Prisma failed to mention the entire section (which includes a photo of the ex-fiancé’s bank book) on the 2 million yen that Komuro asked the ex-fiancé to deposit in his bank account that he was only going to keep temporarily to show his school that he had the means to do the study abroad program. Instead of immediately returning the money as promised after it was no longer needed, Komuro used it for a trip to Spain. The ex-fiancé also later learned that ICU only requires 1 million yen to cover all study abroad expenses. https://www.jprime.jp/articles/-/11727?page=3[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Josei Prime [/FONT][FONT=&quot]was also responsible for covering the story on Komuro’s conduct at MUFG bank, which was never shared here. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]Josei Jishin [/FONT][FONT=&quot]– which also covered the tax issue with the ex-fiancé’s money if it was a gift and the email Mrs Komuro sent to the ex-fiancé about hiding the common law marriage, both stories were not shared here.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Bunshun – [/FONT][FONT=&quot]I have already covered that the bullying allegations were never shared.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]as well as Yahoo News and Nifty, which both reprint articles from all of the previously named sources and others, such as Friday, which covered the possible overlap between Komuro’s wealthy ex-girlfriend and Princess Mako, and Gendai, which has been responsible for most of the long interviews with the ex-fiancé that also were never shared here.
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Please ask yourself, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]if this thread has not been one-sided, how is it that the interviews the ex-fiancé had given were never shared? Did you even notice that? [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Can you still say with confidence that the coverage has not been one-sided, when you have not even read the interviews from the other side(s)?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And if public opposition to Princess Mako’s engagement is what is causing the delay in her marriage, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]why were the very stories that have caused the public to distrust Kei Komuro omitted or misrepresented?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The talk of “unfairness” and of being “silenced” is rather strange and maybe even a bit disingenuous when you consider the above. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]By the way, Tatiana Maria, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]you said that the essentials of everything I mentioned in my first post (320) had already covered in the thread with the exception of the bullying and workplace allegations. But I double-checked and I did not see [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Mrs Komuro’s emails asking the ex-fiancé to keep the common law marriage a secret so she could continue to receive the survivor’s pension, her email asking for a loan, and the photo of the letter she handed to the ex-fiancé with Komuro in 2013 proving he was aware of the loan dispute [/FONT][FONT=&quot]shared anywhere in the thread before I brought it up. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]If you decide to respond my last post to you about the bullying allegations, which I detailed at your request, I would appreciate it if you would also address why that was said.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]And I am sorry that my posts have upset the two of you and maybe others, and I hope this post has shed light on why I have reiterated that this thread has been very unbalanced. I also hope we can now focus on the facts and allegations regarding Komuro that have been shared.[/FONT]

 

[MichaelB]

[FONT=&quot]I would first like to address your comments about the 2012 recording [/FONT]

Thank you for your detailed reply.
You missed my main point, though: the recording issue was but one example I gave in order to explain my concerns regarding your lack of neutral assessment of the matter.
I do understand that Komuro can be criticized for making the recording public and also for making it in the first place. I also see that as long as he does not make the recording fully public his allegations regarding its content or its very existence can be called into question. In short: I see that there are legitimate ways of interpreting the known facts that make Komuro look pretty bad. But there are also legitimate ways of interpreting the known facts that make Komuro look good. Komuro could, for example, be given credit for holding the recording back for such a long time or for just publishing a small part of it.
What gives me pause is that when interpreting the facts you always exclusively choose to interpret them in a way that makes Komuro look bad and that you not even consider and discuss other options. You have access to a lot of Japanese sources which I have not. How am I to know that you do not just give the facts that back your opinion and leave out certain details that might point in another direction? You would not even have to intentionally do this as you probably give me the facts that matter from your point of view. And the facts that matter are those that back your opinion.

You have already made up your mind and all you seemingly care about is convincing others that you are right. You are – in your own words - „shocked“ and „baffled“ that other people dare having an opinion that contradicts yours, and mind you, not an opinion regarding an issue you are an expert on or regarding yourself or your family and friends etc. (which I would easily understand) but regarding a person you have never even personally met.
You give me the impression that you are not open to information or considerations that would contradict what you already believe. You think it impossible that anybody could legitimately hold an opinion that is contrary to your views and or that you could be wrong. And THAT is the main point of our disagreement.
In my opinion, you could be wrong. I could be wrong. Everybody could be wrong as we are talking about matters here that we all have but second-hand information on - if that. Nobody has personally witnessed anything of what we are discussing here or has ever even spoken to one of the people involved.

That being said, thank you for your contributions here. Although they are - for reasons discussed before - a seriously flawed source of information in my view, I am grateful because there generally is unfortunately very little information on Japanese royal matters to be found in Western languages, flawed or otherwise. However, I will take all you say with a huge grain of salt because you are very obviously not even trying to give facts and consider interpretations that would be contrary to your already made up opinion.

And, just for the record, I do think that you owe Prisma an apology.
I can always see that she weighs the information she gives us here. She bravely deals with the challenge of keeping us informed while also trying to not spread baseless rumours or malicious gossip. She does this in a language that she is not familiar with. This is an incredibly difficult task. So, it is absolutely possible that she at one point or other does not get it right or has to correct herself as she herself has readily admitted in her answers to you. Whenever she is made aware of something that should make her correct herself she considers it and adresses it.
I have read not just this one thread but many threads in this forum and I have found her always consistent in this behaviour. I understand that Princess Mako´s engagement seems to be a pet peeve of yours. But Prisma has kept us updated for years to the best of her ability on all matters regarding the Japanese imperial family. On this very thread, she was open and receptive to your criticism. She could have said: „I have been doing this work here for years, you are new, can you please give me some respect?“ She did not do that, she gave you grace and focused on the facts. She thanked you for your contribution:

Thank you and I appreciate your feedback and criticism. I don't remember bullying articles and admittedly was too focused on Princess Kako's birthday photos. Yes, I have shared Japanese magazine articles in this thread and others. They are not my main or regular sources of information. I'm not Japanese and I rely on Google translations since becoming interested in the Imperial family. I am still learning Japan's media and hesitant to share everything I might find online. Bunshun has increased on my radar especially in the past year. I look forward to learning more from you and aim to do better. More posters and information are great!

You, on the other hand, do not seem to be able to appreciate her work, her dedication nor her open and friendly reception of yourself.
If you think that she did not inform us correctly, you have ample opportunity to say so and add whatever information you deem necessary. And you already have made use of it.
But there is really no need to attack Prisma. And with me at least, your accusations towards a longserving and respected poster do not help your cause nor do they enhance your credibility. At all.
And I will tell you why. As I said, my main concern with your assessment of Komuro is that I do not see you at any point giving him the benefit of the doubt.
You are clearly not giving Prisma the benefit of the doubt either. I do not know Prisma personally but as I have said I have been reading her postings for many years. I´d say I know her at least a little bit better than I know Komuro. And there are no data here, none at all, that would justify accusing her of intentionally misleading the forum members. If you are so quick in judging Prisma while there is not any evidence of bad intentions - it seems very possible to me that you might be also too quick in judging Komuro.

 

[MichaelB]

Imagine....

There are a few things regarding the bullying allegations against Komuro that have crossed my mind and that I just want to throw out there for whoever might be interested in my musings.

Just imagine you are a regular average person who becomes famous over night because you get engaged to a prince or a princess. At first, everybody is super happy. But then the ex-partner of a close relative of yours takes advantage of your sudden fame and talks to the press. In my experience, it is rather the rule than the exception that there are usually quite a few unresolved issues and hurt feelings towards the respective ex-partner after couples separate. This can mean that one of the partners is a bad person. But this is not necessarily so. For third parties, it is often rather hard or even impossible to find out who is right or who has done what. If you listen to their respective stories you do not receive the impression of two people who were living through the same story from different perspectives but of two people who were not even on the same planet. You do not recognize one in the story of the other. I personally have given up on finding out what the truth is if there is no factual proof one way or the other or if I have not personally witnessed some of it. One or both ex-partners often feel the need to „get even“ for quite some time after the separation which can make a divorce quite messy. (I am not saying it has to be so, just that it can happen.) But if they have not been formally married there is in most cases not much of an outlet for the „get even“ feeling, and so after a time, they usually move on.
But when the media suddenly takes an interest in your ex-partner because they have become famous because of a royal engagement, it must be quite the temptation to take this opportunity and air your grievances. What a relief to have the whole world listen to how unfairly you have been treated! Someone who has never been involved with the press might well underestimate the long-term consequences of that temporary feeling of relief. (I found it quite interesting that the ex-fiancé said that it was not his intention to prevent the marriage and that he was feeling bad about that.)

Ok, however that may be, the press has now a „bad“ story on your relative, and according to the usual up- and- down media logic of „first we praise them and then we slander them and then we praise them again...“, they go and try to dig up some dirt on you, contacting all your friends, ex-partners, former classmates, family, co-workers, dentists, kindergarten teachers etc. Are you really sure – if that were you – that they would not be able find one single person who would come up with a story about you that sounds pretty bad?
I personally would not. I try to be fair with people and I try to take responsibility and make amends when I mess up, I try to do the right thing. But in my experience, no matter how hard you try there will always inevitably be people who do not like what you do or who do not like what you say.
In my average person´s life that is not a problem. Nobody is interested in the story of the classmate who wanted to copy my homework and still resents that I did not let them do that. (That one´s made up, by the way. While I am absolutely convinced that someone would come up with some story if hunted by the press, because that is just the way it is, I swear to God that I do not know what the story would specifically be.)
When you become famous over night all the people who think you are a great human being and deserve all of it as well as all the people who have always thought that you are a nuisance and a waste of space will get their opportunity of talking to the media.
I am very happy to know that I will never have that problem. Even if you are born royal it must be difficult to handle. If you are not but marry into royalty, you´ll probably have to learn to somehow live with the fact that a lot of people think that they know who you are but quite simply don´t.

 

[Denville]

Clearly the man is no angel. But I doubt if he's so bad that he's going to bring down the monarchy if Mako marries him. There may be a case for being cautious as to how much money she gets as a "payment" towards married life- it would clearly be better if she received it from her own family and not the tax payer, and if her new husband is a little dubious, it would be better if the money's tied up in some way so that if that's what he's marrying her for, he wont get much....
but I doubt if the Japanese people as a whole really will be saying "get rid of the Monarchy if this man marries the Princess..."

 

[Junjun]

[FONT=&quot]It cannot be argued that limited Japanese ability or reluctance to read magazines and other tabloid sources is why the stories about the Komuros have been missing here because Prisma has [/FONT][FONT=&quot]admitted to searching the tabloids and twitter on Kei Komuro before in this very thread more than once. And in this thread, they had repeatedly posted articles from:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Josei Seven - [/FONT][FONT=&quot]which reported the details on Komuro’s father’s suicide, grandfather’s suicide, the Komuros’ finances, the inheritance dispute and Mrs Komuro’s mediator with a criminal background who came forward, and her former boyfriend, whose presence had also been described by A in his interview with Bunshun about the bullying and by Josei Prime, but were never shared here. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Josei Prime[/FONT][FONT=&quot] - which leaked the loan issue on December 11, 2017, which was not shared here until after the engagement was delayed and it could no longer be ignored. When Prisma did summarize those articles, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]they omitted the entire section (more than a full page) on the man Mrs Komuro dated immediately after her husband’s death (or while he was still alive, according to some reports) and supported financially. This is important information because Mrs Komuro told her ex-fiancé when she met him that her financial situation was dire and she required help, when she had supported her unemployed boyfriend while sending her son to an international school. (Post 126) https://www.jprime.jp/articles/-/11512?page=3[/FONT]

Wow, kikunohana, is it true? Sorry, I wasn’t aware of it until now.
Maybe it comes from a kind of “normalcy bias正常性バイアス”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias

Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.

But yes, I also found that people here tend to ommitt or ignore information unfavorable for Komuro. They naively say “You seem to dislike him” or “Let’s hope he is a man of decency.”
I think since the title of this forum is “Engagement of Princess Mako and Kei Komuro”, people automatically expect happy end story of a couple who loves each other.

Connection to criminal organization of Mr.Komuro is a practical threat to Japanese IF now. The weight of “romance” is blown up since Komuro and his mother is “one team”, Komuro is a person who thinks “My mom’s interest is my interest.”

But I should not interrupt you, please go on...

Clearly the man is no angel. But I doubt if he's so bad that he's going to bring down the monarchy if Mako marries him. There may be a case for being cautious as to how much money she gets as a "payment" towards married life- it would clearly be better if she received it from her own family and not the tax payer, and if her new husband is a little dubious, it would be better if the money's tied up in some way so that if that's what he's marrying her for, he wont get much....
but I doubt if the Japanese people as a whole really will be saying "get rid of the Monarchy if this man marries the Princess..."

Ah...sorry, she cannot receive money from her family from a legal perspective, as I mentioned before. It is banned by IF Economic Act that IF members transfer their money to others for a certain amount unless normal commercial act by themselves. If they want to do so, it should go through decision of the Diet.

https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/about/seido/seido08.html

Since the property of Japanese IF is basically tax money, they cannot freely transfer it.
(It might happen they secretly do so, but it’s illegal.)

Second reply to Denville:

Clearly the man is no angel. But I doubt if he's so bad that he's going to bring down the monarchy if Mako marries him.

[…]

but I doubt if the Japanese people as a whole really will be saying "get rid of the Monarchy if this man marries the Princess..."

Hmm, younger generation is more and more indifferent of IF, I don’t Know what they will say...but voices that “IF is not needed any more” is surely increasing in my eyes. So It is taken as a threat to IF by IHA and Emperor Naruhito, who gave unfavorable comment to the marriage in his birthday press conference this February.

 

[Denville]

Ah...sorry, she cannot receive money from her family from a legal perspective, as I mentioned before. It is banned by IF Economic Act that IF members transfer their money to others for a certain amount unless normal commercial act by themselves. If they want to do so, it should go through decision of the Diet.

https://www.kunaicho.go.jp/about/seido/seido08.html

Since the property of Japanese IF is basically tax money, they cannot freely transfer it.
(It might happen they secretly do so, but it’s illegal.)

I dont know what you mean by "Normal commercial act by themselves."

 

[Savannahs]

None of us will ever know what kind of person Kei Komuro is, or what stories are true and what stories the tabloids made up. And it doesn’t matter.

This is 100% about Mako and whether people respect her autonomy.

The imperial family’s structure was set up decades ago: women must leave the family when they marry, and when they leave they get a payment. I think of it like a bonus. It’s part of her pay check for the work she’s done her whole life for this institution, and an acknowledgement that (through no choice of her own) she will continue to be of public interest and so will have some expenses to buy a safe apartment and arrange security.

You may disagree with this structure, but it’s what exists. Mako didn’t agree to it. She was born into this family. It’s had a lot of downsides for her I’m sure, and this exit option with some compensation is one upside - a relatively small upside I think, in comparison to living under the restrictions of imperial life up to now. I doubt many people would choose to be a member of the Imperial Family, if given a choice.

Her father is right that the constitution says that marriage is up to the couple alone. Mako is an adult; she’s followed all the imperial family’s rules & met her responsibilities (none of which she ever chose), and yet now people want to prevent her from being compensated for her years of work. Instead, they feel entitled to control her.

I’m not from Japan, but I do wonder if this situation parallels and reflects the wider society’s complicated views on marriage. There are enormous societal expectations for a couple that wants to marry and have children (eg the man should have tenured employment, the woman should stay home, etc). In the face of those daunting/impossible expectations, many (most?) young people choose not to marry. Mako is experiencing this impossible pressure on a public scale. I think that’s often why we’re attracted to royal families: despite all the glamor and protocol, we relate to their life experience.

For what it’s worth, I do have Japanese friends who live in Japan. I’ve asked them, and they say no one they know cares about the imperial family or Mako’s situation. So I think claims that most people in Japan have a strongly negative view are incorrect. At most, perhaps the older generation cares more and feels a stronger desire to control Mako.

 

[Junjun]

I dont know what you mean by "Normal commercial act by themselves."

Sorry, my poor English caused it.

It means, if they buy something or sell something that costs over 1.6 m yen, it’s no problem. But if it’s not buying nor selling, such as donation, then it’s problem. They cannot freely do it.

 

[Denville]

I dont undertand the ins and outs but if Mako's leaving the IF when she marries, I dont quite see why she gets a pay off. However if that's the way it goes, surely it ought to be possible to arrange it so that the money comes more from the IF than the tax payer... and that it is a relatively small amount and that it can be tied up in some way that it does not greatly benefit the husband.. so that if he IS a gold digger, he's not likely to want to go ahead with the marriage.

 

[Junjun]

None of us will ever know what kind of person Kei Komuro is, or what stories are true and what stories the tabloids made up. And it doesn’t matter.

This is 100% about Mako and whether people respect her autonomy.

The imperial family’s structure was set up decades ago: women must leave the family when they marry, and when they leave they get a payment. I think of it like a bonus. It’s part of her pay check for the work she’s done her whole life for this institution, and an acknowledgement that (through no choice of her own) she will continue to be of public interest and so will have some expenses to buy a safe apartment and arrange security.

You may disagree with this structure, but it’s what exists. Mako didn’t agree to it. She was born into this family. It’s had a lot of downsides for her I’m sure, and this exit option with some compensation is one upside - a relatively small upside I think, in comparison to living under the restrictions of imperial life up to now. I doubt many people would choose to be a member of the Imperial Family, if given a choice.

Her father is right that the constitution says that marriage is up to the couple alone. Mako is an adult; she’s followed all the imperial family’s rules & met her responsibilities (none of which she ever chose), and yet now people want to prevent her from being compensated for her years of work. Instead, they feel entitled to control her.

I’m not from Japan, but I do wonder if this situation parallels and reflects the wider society’s complicated views on marriage. There are enormous societal expectations for a couple that wants to marry and have children (eg the man should have tenured employment, the woman should stay home, etc). In the face of those daunting/impossible expectations, many (most?) young people choose not to marry. Mako is experiencing this impossible pressure on a public scale. I think that’s often why we’re attracted to royal families: despite all the glamor and protocol, we relate to their life experience.

For what it’s worth, I do have Japanese friends who live in Japan. I’ve asked them, and they say no one they know cares about the imperial family or Mako’s situation. So I think claims that most people in Japan have a strongly negative view are incorrect. At most, perhaps the older generation cares more and feels a stronger desire to control Mako.

Oh was it so?
A web research conducted by Weekly Asahi this March showed 97.6% of the questionee was opposite to this marriage.

https://dot.asahi.com/wa/photoarticle/2021031800010.html?page=1

Since this is a web research, it may be so-called “people with strong feeling” answering it, but it is a tremendous figure I’ve never seen.
though I agree that younger generation is more and more indifferent of IF.

You say:
“This is 100% about Mako and whether people respect her autonomy. “
I say that is your opinion or value, not that of mine.

And you know we’re not barbarian, we are seeking for best solution.

 

[Savannahs]

I think any ballot that results in 97.6% of people agreeing about anything is suspect. That’s a “dictator-declares-victory” number.

 

[Denville]

Its more probable that it is a very small unscientific sample.. or a very biased set of questions. I think that it looks like Mako's going to go ahead and marry this man, regardless so surely the best thing would be to try and arrange it so that he does not benefit more than moderately form the "pay off".. and then if the marriage lasts, and he's sincere they have some money and he will be able to pursue a career... and if the marriage does not last, he'll leave without benefiting too heavily from the payment.

 

[Junjun]

I think any ballot that results in 97.6% of people agreeing about anything is suspect. That’s a “dictator-declares-victory” number.

Oh do you think so?
On the contrary, the Asahi was pro-marriage, it always carried stories which praise Komuro or promote this marriage before this research.
However, since people’s opinion proved so strong in this research, it had to turn its mind to criticize the marriage.
The result is not artificial, it’s real.

 

[Junjun]

There are a few things regarding the bullying allegations against Komuro that have crossed my mind and that I just want to throw out there for whoever might be interested in my musings.

Just imagine you are a regular average person who becomes famous over night because you get engaged to a prince or a princess. At first, everybody is super happy. But then the ex-partner of a close relative of yours takes advantage of your sudden fame and talks to the press. In my experience, it is rather the rule than the exception that there are usually quite a few unresolved issues and hurt feelings towards the respective ex-partner after couples separate. This can mean that one of the partners is a bad person. But this is not necessarily so. For third parties, it is often rather hard or even impossible to find out who is right or who has done what. If you listen to their respective stories you do not receive the impression of two people who were living through the same story from different perspectives but of two people who were not even on the same planet. You do not recognize one in the story of the other. I personally have given up on finding out what the truth is if there is no factual proof one way or the other or if I have not personally witnessed some of it. One or both ex-partners often feel the need to „get even“ for quite some time after the separation which can make a divorce quite messy. (I am not saying it has to be so, just that it can happen.) But if they have not been formally married there is in most cases not much of an outlet for the „get even“ feeling, and so after a time, they usually move on.
But when the media suddenly takes an interest in your ex-partner because they have become famous because of a royal engagement, it must be quite the temptation to take this opportunity and air your grievances. What a relief to have the whole world listen to how unfairly you have been treated! Someone who has never been involved with the press might well underestimate the long-term consequences of that temporary feeling of relief. (I found it quite interesting that the ex-fiancé said that it was not his intention to prevent the marriage and that he was feeling bad about that.)

Ok, however that may be, the press has now a „bad“ story on your relative, and according to the usual up- and- down media logic of „first we praise them and then we slander them and then we praise them again...“, they go and try to dig up some dirt on you, contacting all your friends, ex-partners, former classmates, family, co-workers, dentists, kindergarten teachers etc. Are you really sure – if that were you – that they would not be able find one single person who would come up with a story about you that sounds pretty bad?
I personally would not. I try to be fair with people and I try to take responsibility and make amends when I mess up, I try to do the right thing. But in my experience, no matter how hard you try there will always inevitably be people who do not like what you do or who do not like what you say.
In my average person´s life that is not a problem. Nobody is interested in the story of the classmate who wanted to copy my homework and still resents that I did not let them do that. (That one´s made up, by the way. While I am absolutely convinced that someone would come up with some story if hunted by the press, because that is just the way it is, I swear to God that I do not know what the story would specifically be.)
When you become famous over night all the people who think you are a great human being and deserve all of it as well as all the people who have always thought that you are a nuisance and a waste of space will get their opportunity of talking to the media.
I am very happy to know that I will never have that problem. Even if you are born royal it must be difficult to handle. If you are not but marry into royalty, you´ll probably have to learn to somehow live with the fact that a lot of people think that they know who you are but quite simply don´t.

I ask you to provide evidences to prove your opinion.

Number of evidences was shown in the stories kikunohana and I linked here, such as line messages, recordings, and witnesses.
You are responsible for checking them before you say that.

I myself was first surprised at more and more scandals reported on Komuros, but after I verified each evidence provided there, I start believing them.
One victim of his alleged bullying is still confined in her house after she dropped out from her highschool due to bullying. You can't say that she is lying without evidence.
And bullying episodes committed by Komuro is not one, are three witnessed so far.

So, I understood that such a kind of person would be willing to be a spouse of a princess. It is very easy way to be rich for him.


Dear posters and readers, and with respect to this forum___


I ask you please to take a glance of this wikipedia page:

"Normalcy Bias"

Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.[1] Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.[2] The normalcy bias causes many people to not adequately prepare for natural disasters, market crashes, and calamities caused by human error. About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster.[3]

[...]

It is a common phenomenon that people ignore the seriousness of an event or information. For example, the impact of COVID-19 was ignored in many countries at first, which caused considerable number of patients and death.

I like to discuss problems on the same ground with people here, so please see the evidences I and other Japanese posters provide here with the idea of "normalcy bias" in mind when you participate in discussion.

Thank you so much for your patience to read my post.

 

[Savannahs]

JunJun, you seem obsessed with hating Kei Komuro - can I ask why? What is your goal with your obsession? What is the harm that you think will happen if Mako marries him? You just compared underestimating him to underestimating a deadly and highly contagious disease, which seems...irrationally extreme.

It’s not your place to judge who Mako should marry. She’s an adult and can make a decision for herself. And she’s entitled to a payment when she leaves the royal family; that payment has nothing to do with Kei Komuro. It’s her money.

Again, it’s a serious question: what specific bad thing do you think will happen if Mako and Kei get married / Mako receives a payment when she leaves the family?

 

[Junjun]

JunJun, you seem obsessed with hating Kei Komuro - can I ask why? What is your goal with your obsession? What is the harm that you think will happen if Mako marries him? You just compared underestimating him to underestimating a deadly and highly contagious disease, which seems...irrationally extreme.

It’s not your place to judge who Mako should marry. She’s an adult and can make a decision for herself. And she’s entitled to a payment when she leaves the royal family; that payment has nothing to do with Kei Komuro. It’s her money.

Again, it’s a serious question: what specific bad thing do you think will happen if Mako and Kei get married / Mako receives a payment when she leaves the family?

Thank you for your comment, Savannahs,
Again, I ask you to provide an evidences to prove it.

And I have already explained a lot of things here, please read thoroughly them.
Thank you.

 

[Savannahs]

Evidence to prove what? All I said was that Mako is an adult and is entitled to marry who she wants and receive a payment when she leaves the royal family. Those are facts.

I’d encourage you to take a step back. As I said before, none of us (including you!) knows what Kei is like as a person. I agree with MichaelB that I doubt anyone would withstand the scrutiny that Kei is under; I’m glad my childhood acquaintances don’t have reason to publicly bad mouth me now.

The tabloid media also makes up stuff to sell papers, as you yourself acknowledged when you said that the Asachi started publishing negative stories about him when they realized there was a public appetite for it. Hence they created Kei, the cult-member, fraud-master, sociopathic bully, who must have brainwashed Mako into falling in love with him, because she couldn’t possibly have chosen this conniving monster of her own free will.

Here’s what I do know: Kei was raised by an uneducated single mother, who worked in a bakery. He studied hard, managed to gain admission to a good university, met a princess, fell in love, and was attacked by a media with all sorts of horrible accusations that would make any normal person run for the hills. Instead of taking the easy way out and breaking off his relationship, he moved halfway around the world and spent three years in law school in order to be qualified to earn a good salary to support his future wife. And he’s taken responsibility for negotiating with his mom’s ex, who was responsible for starting the media attacks against him in the first place.

Is he a nice guy? Would I like him if I met him in person? I have no idea. But I do respect him. And, most importantly, I respect Mako and her right to marry who ever she wants.

 

[Happiness Always]

The things I learn every time I come here... I didn't know Mrs. Komuro worked in a bakery.

I see Kei Komuro in a bad light because I know only of biased opinions about him, but I didn't think of Mako being brainwashed by him. She likes what (she thinks) she knows about him. She is a princess and deserves her "goodbye" money because she is leaving the royal world which provided for her from birth to present.

I guess we all can think we know our SO, and sometimes it's a surprise to find out when push comes to shove, that things don't turn out well. Perhaps people who are vehemently opposed to Mako tying the knot with Kei feel protective of the future of their princess. They want her to be happy as a commoner.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Everyone here is asked to provide evidences.
Thank you.

No one is asked for "providing evidences". This is an internet forum, not a Court of Justice.

 

[Junjun]

No one is asked for "providing evidences". This is an internet forum, not a Court of Justice.

Oh is it so?
I was asked to provide evidences by several members here, was it with no ground?

One of them clearly said “TRF asks you to provide evidences” . Wasn’t it true?

 

[Tatiana Maria]

No one is asked for "providing evidences". This is an internet forum, not a Court of Justice.

See Junjun's reply.

Oh is it so?
I was asked to provide evidences by several members here, was it with no ground?

One of them clearly said “TRF asks you to provide evidences” . Wasn’t it true?

Yes, that is correct. Refer the The Royal Forum Rules page:

Whenever possible, opinions should be based on factual information obtained from reputable sources and should be backed up by references to those sources.​

I would respectfully suggest that you be more specific in regards to what you are asking for other members to provide evidence of, as that is not clear to me from your previous posts.