Human Interest

Former princess Mako, Komuro leave Japan for new life in New York

Tokyo, Nov 14 (EFE).- Japan’s former princess Mako and her husband Kei Komuro left Tokyo on Sunday for the United States where they will begin their new life together.

The couple, who married in October, left from Haneda airport and plan to settle in New York City, where Komuro will develop his career at a law firm.

The niece of Emperor Naruhito, and eldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko, wed Komuro on Oct. 26, amid controversy over an alleged financial dispute between Komuro’s mother and her ex fiance, which sparked criticism and for years delayed the wedding.

On Friday, two days before the couple’s departure from Japan, a settlement was made in the financial dispute, according to local media.

The media scrutiny and criticism received from some social sectors around the dispute caused Mako to develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Imperial Household Agency.

On the wedding day, Mako told reporters that she and Komuro were “horrified, scared, and saddened by the fact that false information has been taken as fact and that unfounded stories have spread.”

Mako was the first woman in the imperial family to have a civil wedding in postwar Japan and also the first to turn down the traditional lump-sum payment of up to 150 million yen ($1.3 million) given to a family member upon their exit from the royal household.

As stipulated by the law that governs the Imperial Household, Mako’s wedding to commoner Komuro meant her departure from the royal family, and she took his surname. EFE

cgv/tw

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