+ A
A -
dpa
Tokyo
Japanese Princess Mako, 29, has attended her last expected official ceremony for the last time before her wedding to a commoner.
She and her sister Kako drove in a dark limousine from their residence in Tokyo’s Akasaka district to the nearby imperial palace on Thursday for an Autumn Festival event at Emperor Naruhito’s palace.
In bright sunshine, she greeted passers-by from the open car window, the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.
Princess Mako plans to marry her university friend Kei Komuro, who is the same age as her, soon, which means she will lose her royal position and become a private individual.
Her fiance is expected to arrive in Tokyo next Monday from the United States, where he now lives and recently passed his bar exam, for the wedding.
After a two-week coronavirus quarantine, he and Mako are expected to officially marry in October, Japanese media reported.
Mako plans to forego the rituals and ceremonies normally associated with weddings at the imperial court. She also does not want to accept the state dowry to which she is entitled, amounting to the equivalent of about 1.2 million dollars. According to observers, this is her way of securing her freedom.
Mako, daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, 55, the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, 61, and his wife Kiko, has actually been engaged to Komuro for around four years - albeit unofficially.
They were in fact supposed to get married in 2018, but the wedding date was suddenly cancelled due to financial problems in Komuro’s family.
With the completion of his law studies in the US, where Komuro will work for a US law firm in the future, according to the media, he and his fiancee have now gained their financial independence.
Mako can thus turn her back on the restrictive life at court, which is marked by age-old rituals, and start a new life with her husband in the US.
Tokyo
Japanese Princess Mako, 29, has attended her last expected official ceremony for the last time before her wedding to a commoner.
She and her sister Kako drove in a dark limousine from their residence in Tokyo’s Akasaka district to the nearby imperial palace on Thursday for an Autumn Festival event at Emperor Naruhito’s palace.
In bright sunshine, she greeted passers-by from the open car window, the Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported.
Princess Mako plans to marry her university friend Kei Komuro, who is the same age as her, soon, which means she will lose her royal position and become a private individual.
Her fiance is expected to arrive in Tokyo next Monday from the United States, where he now lives and recently passed his bar exam, for the wedding.
After a two-week coronavirus quarantine, he and Mako are expected to officially marry in October, Japanese media reported.
Mako plans to forego the rituals and ceremonies normally associated with weddings at the imperial court. She also does not want to accept the state dowry to which she is entitled, amounting to the equivalent of about 1.2 million dollars. According to observers, this is her way of securing her freedom.
Mako, daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, 55, the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, 61, and his wife Kiko, has actually been engaged to Komuro for around four years - albeit unofficially.
They were in fact supposed to get married in 2018, but the wedding date was suddenly cancelled due to financial problems in Komuro’s family.
With the completion of his law studies in the US, where Komuro will work for a US law firm in the future, according to the media, he and his fiancee have now gained their financial independence.
Mako can thus turn her back on the restrictive life at court, which is marked by age-old rituals, and start a new life with her husband in the US.
