Olympic host Japan enjoys a reputation as a modern high-tech nation, a hip Mecca for manga and anime, and a stronghold of cool robots. But when, shortly before the end of the Paralympics on Sunday, Japan's court reporter announced that Princess Mako would marry her college friend Kei Komuro this year, the country suddenly showed not its friendly, playful, but rather its ultra-conservative side. The wedding of Mako would be unadorned without the traditional rites and ceremonies customary at court, it was said. And it almost sounded like punishment.
What happened? Princess Mako (29), daughter of Crown Prince Akishino (55), the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito (61), and his wife Kiko, has actually been engaged to her college friend of the same age for around four years - unofficially. Actually, they wanted to get married in 2018, which would make Princess Mako a private person. Because Komuro is a commoner. Mako would receive a one-time sum of money from the state before leaving the court.
But suddenly the wedding date was canceled.
The reason: Komuro's mother owes money to a man she was once engaged to.
To this day, many in the population are outraged by the thought that the debts of Komuro's mother could be paid off with Mako's tax-financed dowry.
All of this must have weighed heavily on Mako and Komuro, but apparently it didn't change anything about their love.
Komuro went to the United States to study law.
He graduated in May and passed the bar exam in New York.
He is now financially on his own two feet, can help his mother if necessary - and marry Mako.
Psychological pressure at the imperial court
For the princess, the "escape to freedom" succeeds, explains Ernst Lokowandt, an intimate connoisseur of the Japanese imperial family. The restrictive life behind the dense chrysanthemum curtain of the imperial palace, characterized by ancient rituals, has sometimes been difficult for other women. A woman who did not always have it easy at court is the mother of today's Emperor Naruhito, Michiko. She was the first commoner that an emperor was allowed to consort against the almost 2000 year old tradition. She suffered so much that she even lost her voice in the meantime.
Michiko's daughter-in-law, the former elite diplomat and today's Empress Masako, is also an outsider at the imperial court and suffered from psychological pressure. Masako officially fell ill with an "adjustment disorder", which resulted from the enormous stress of her office. Many observers saw behind this above all the pressure, which had been onerous for a long time since their wedding, to give birth to a male heir to the throne. 2001 daughter Aiko was born. However, because of her gender, she is denied the throne by law.
Her relative, Princess Mako, will soon no longer have to worry about all this.
The princess had already been taught "free thinking" at the International Christian University (ICU), where only Christians are allowed to be teachers and the lecture "Introduction to Christianity" is compulsory, as Lokowandt explained to the German press agency in Tokyo.
It was at this university that Mako had met her future husband a few years ago.
The princess was the first member of the imperial family to study at the ICU.
Waiver of the state dowry
According to observers, the desire for freedom is also expressed in the fact that Mako declared that she did not want to accept the dowry, which amounted to around one million euros. And even if this is not legally possible, she is said to have already announced that she wants to donate the money. Apparently she doesn't want to end up like her aunt Sayako Kuroda, explains Lokowandt. The daughter of the former emperor Akihito had also not married a man from the old nobility in 2005, but a perfectly normal Japanese.
At that time the princess went through all traditional wedding rites at court and also received the state one-time fee. Although she has officially been a commoner since then, she has the duty of the court to serve as the highest priestess of the Ise Shrine, the most sacred shrine of the Shinto religion. The sun goddess Amaterasu, the patron deity of the nation and mythical ancestor of the emperor, has been worshiped here for more than a millennium.
Apparently in order to evade all such obligations and to calm her critics, Mako waives the state dowry. “She throws everything down,” summarizes Lokowandt. Japan's court reporters claim that Mako is following her future husband to the USA - as a commoner, she will receive a passport for the first time in her life - and will spend her life there.
While Princess Mako and Komuro look forward to their future together in freedom, the guardians of the imperial family worry about the future of the court. The oldest hereditary monarchy in the world is gradually running out of offspring. Only men are allowed to the throne according to the law in force. Mako's younger brother, 15-year-old Prince Hisahito, is the only remaining male member of the youngest generation of the imperial family after her father.