TOKYO: Japan’s Princess Mako will marry her commoner boyfriend Kei Komuro on Oct. 26, the Imperial Household Agency said Friday, after years of controversy over a money dispute in his family.

Their marriage will be registered immediately, depriving the princess, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, of her membership of the Imperial Family as required by the Imperial House Law.

The 29-year-old princess will hold a press conference together with Komuro, also 29, on the day of their marriage.

Princess Mako, a niece of Emperor Naruhito, will be the ninth female member of the Imperial Family to marry since World War II, and the first since Ayako Moriya, the third daughter of the late Prince Takamado, a cousin of Emperor Emeritus Akihito, in 2018.

Marriage-related Imperial rituals, including the “Nosai-no-Gi” engagement ceremony, will not be held and a lump-sum marriage allowance will not be paid from the state to Princess Mako, who is giving consideration to public opinion critical of the marriage due to the money scandal, involving Komuro’s mother.

According to the agency, Princess Mako suffered emotional damage that was diagnosed as complex posttraumatic stress disorder, after reading texts that she took as slanders.

The princess will get her family registration after the marriage and a passport, and leave Japan to live in New York with Komuro.

After their informal engagement in September 2017, the princess and Komuro were supposed to hold their wedding ceremony in November 2018.

In February 2018, the agency said marriage-linked events would be postponed until 2020 after the financial dispute between Komuro’s mother and her former fiance was uncovered. The events were put off further.

Komuro left for the United States in August 2018 and graduated from Fordham University’s law school in May this year after about three years of study.

Komuro took the New York state bar examination in July, with results to be announced by mid-December.

Currently on the staff of a local law firm, Komuro returned to Japan on Monday for the marriage.

The departure of Princess Mako will reduce the number of Imperial Family members to 17, the lowest since the start of the Heisei era in 1989, when the Emperor Emeritus, the father of the Emperor, ascended the throne.

JIJI Press