Kae Sunagawa, who knows Princess Mako from university, said she related immensely to the princess’ struggles. From an early age, Sunagawa learned that to be a good woman was to know how to cook and do house chores, values she strongly resisted. Also having grown up in an affluent family, she said she was expected to marry well.
“When I introduced my parents to an ex-boyfriend of mine, who was only a high school graduate, they didn’t receive him well. They were cold, and that made me disappointed in them,” she told VICE World News.
She said she feels for Princess Mako also for marrying at the age of 30, which she described as a point of great “stress.” In Japan, “Christmas Cake” is often used as a metaphor for an “unmarriageable” woman because she’s over 25 and past the supposed prime of her youth.
“Given her age, and her inability to freely date, it adds a lot of pressure. I’ve experienced the same thing as well,” she said. (...)
Akira Yamada, a professor at Meiji University who studies Japanese history and its imperial system (...) added that the royal family’s unique position in Japanese society—royalty being separate from the public and therefore not protected by the country’s constitution—meant they do not have the same human rights other Japanese people enjoy.
The situation was even more discriminatory for female royals, whom he said “were chased out of the imperial family if they married a commoner.”
“This is an extremely old way of thinking, centered on patriarchal standards, and it just doesn’t match our modern societal values of gender equality,” he said. (...)
She’ll live oceans apart from her family, Yamada said, but what she’s done for the Japanese people is immeasurable.
“There are many people in Japan who feel tormented by the fact they can’t speak freely, or marry whom they want. People who feel powerless. But Princess Mako’s actions by rejecting these pressures is sending a very strong message—that you can live for yourself,” Yamada said.