Receive free updates for Japanese groups
We will send it to you myFT Daily Digest email surrounding Japanese news every morning.
Princess Mako, the granddaughter of Japan’s Emperor, is due to marry her fiancé this month after a four-year affair that rocked the country’s media.
The choice of the queen’s husband was scrutinized, which led to the couple’s trauma which led to her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Mark’s condition, reminiscent of stress-related illnesses in which both his aunts, the Japanese queen, and their grandmother, the former queen, came out on Friday when their wedding was announced later this month.
The affair between the queen and 30-year-old Kei Komuro, a Yokohama-born law firm who worked for a law firm in New York, became known for the first time in 2017. Their relationship became a staple of Japanese newspapers and gossip magazines. brouhaha in the UK on the election of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leaving the royal family.
Journalists complained that Komuro’s mother, who raised her only son, was in financial trouble over her ex-boyfriend, who criticized her for not being fit for royalty.
The couple’s interest came to the fore this week when Komuro arrived from the US performing a ponytail, a form seen by Japanese commentators as a threat to the queen’s offer.
In accordance with Japanese law, Mako’s wedding, which is to be held on October 26, separates him from the royal family, deprives him of his dignity and leaves him in the lurch. The pair are planning to move to New York, an idea that has sparked outrage from other Japanese media outlets.
Unusually, the royal family announced on Friday that Mako wanted to refuse $ 1.4m after marrying Komura, according to an official NHK official. The commission declined to comment.
Traditionally, Japanese monarchs receive a fine once they start their normal life to help support a particular life. But Mako, says that based on public opposition, has decided not to take the money when he begins his new life with Komuro in New York.
Weddings are expected to be simple and traditional rituals are clearly not to take place. When Mako’s aunt, Princess Nori, married a civilian – the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan State – in 2005, a wedding party took place at a central hotel in Tokyo.
Japanese media reports that Mako has been suffering from PTSD as a result of anxiety, lack of interest and laziness since 2018. Officials said the couple’s criticism from their relationship had made him “fearful that he wanted a peaceful and happy life after marriage was impossible”.
Mako is the third female member of the royal family to become ill after the trauma of Queen Masako after a long period of depression and former Queen Michiko lost her voice for a while.