Tokyo, Oct 26: Japanese Princess Mako, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito, has officially married her boyfriend, former college classmate Kei Komuro, media reported on Tuesday.
The princess left the Imperial family’s Akasaka Estate in Tokyo on Tuesday morning, the NHK broadcaster said, adding that her parents and younger sister saw her off.
The couple’s marriage registration was filed by a representative of the Imperial Household Agency with a municipal government on the pair’s behalf, marking Mako’s departure from the Imperial family.
After the ceremony, the newly-wedded delivered an address in the presence of journalists, who were only able to submit questions in advance.
The couple now plans to move to the United States, where Komuro works with a law company.
The wedding has been postponed for nearly three years due to a financial dispute involving Komuro’s mother that triggered public unease. Therefore, the pair decider to forgo the usual rites associated with the weddings of imperial family members, such as a formal engagement ceremony and an official meeting with the emperor and empress prior to marriage.
The Imperial Household Agency also accepted Princess Mako’s unprecedented request to forgo a lump-sum payment of up to 150 million yen ($1.3 million) that is traditionally received by female imperial family members upon their departure from the household.
The pair announced their engagement in September 2017, with the wedding initially scheduled to take place in November 2018. But six months before the event, a scandal broke out related to the debts of the fiance’s mother, after which the wedding was postponed and Komuro left Japan to study law in the United States, where he has spent the last three years. He returned to Japan in late September to meet with his fiance for the first time in three years. (UNI)
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