Komuri Kei, Princess Mako’s new husband, failed his New York State bar exam. The results were released days after the couple was married.
Mako, 30, is the eldest daughter and niece of Crown Prince Fumihito. She was also the niece of the reigning Emperor Naruhito.
The couple will move into an apartment in Tokyo together before moving to New York City. Komuro works as a New-Jersey-based lawyer at Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
Mako declined the offer of 140million yen (£890,000) payment to which she was entitled for leaving the imperial family, palace officials said, and is expected to find a job in New York.
Komuro called Okuno Yoshihiko from Japan, where he used to work, to tell him that he failed the New York State Bar Association exam. Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Komuri Kei (Princess Mako) has failed the New York State bar exam. Results were released days after the couple was married.
Komuro took an exam earlier in summer. The exam results were posted to the website of New York State Board of Law Examiners Friday. His name was not among the top candidates.
Komuro said that he plans on continuing studying and will retake exams in February.
Mako has also spoken She will continue to support her husband’s education.
According to polls, as high as 80 percent of Japanese opposed the marriage that took places in Tokyo’s register office without any pomp or ceremony.
Mako, 30, the oldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito’s and the niece of the reigning Emperor Naruhito was married to Kei Komuro last week in Tokyo. It was their eight-year-long engagement.
Kayo, Komuro’s widowed mom, raised him. When he was in elementary school, his father died. His jobs in Japan included a job in a French restaurant as well as in a bank.
He met Mako while they were both at the International Christian University in Tokyo.
His proposal propelled him onto the front page Japanese newspapers. His only claim to fame was being named Prince of Sea to lead a tourism campaign along the coast of Fujisawa.
The couple, now both 30, were ‘unofficially’ engaged in 2017 and plan to tie the knot in Nov 2018.
Initially the news was greeted with delight in Japan, but then a scandal grew up when it was discovered that Kayo had not repaid a 4million yen ($35,000) loan from a former fiancé, partly to pay her son’s tuition.
Komuro as he was growing up. Komuro, 30, left Japan in 2017 to study law in New York.
Kayo, Komuro’s widowed mom, raised him. His father died while he still was in elementary school. He is pictured with his dad at age nine
His only claim to fame was his title as Prince of the Sea, which he used to lead a tourism campaign along the coast of Fujisawa. He is wearing the Prince of the Sea scarf in 2010.
Komuro was accused of marrying the princess to make money or fame.
Komuro wrote a 24-page explanation regarding the money, claiming it was a donation and not a loan. He was even more disliked for it.
He eventually said he would repay it. However, it is not known if the money was ever returned.
Only five percent of respondents in Japan voted to congratulate the couple, while a staggering 91% said they wouldn’t.
Despite the turmoil, Mako and Kei’s love remained strong. Last year, the ex-princess begged Japan’s public to support her decision.
She stated, “We are irreplaceable together – someone you can rely on during both joyful and unhappy times,” and she announced the wedding would proceed.
“So, a marriage is a necessary decision for us to live while cherishing our feelings and protecting them.”
Komuro (pictured above, in Yokohama in 2017,) and Princess Mako (30 now), were ‘unofficially engaged’ in 2017, just four years after they first met at university.
Komuro and his friends are pictured at an amusement parks in 2009. Before moving to New York, Komuro worked in a Japanese bank and in a French restaurant.
Japan was delighted at the news of the couple’s engagement. But then, it was revealed that his mother owed 4million yen ($35,000). Pictured: Komuro in 2012
On Tuesday, her words were almost identical. She said that Kei was irreplaceable for her. ‘Marriage was a choice that was necessary for us.
In prepared remarks, she also stated: “I acknowledge that there are different opinions about our marriage. I am sorry for the people who caused us to have problems.
“I’m grateful to those who have been quiet concerned about us or who supported us without being confused with baseless information.”
She stated that incorrect reporting about her husband had caused her ‘great fear and stress’.
“The flow of arbitrary criticisms of Kei’s actions, along with one-sided speculation which ignored my feelings, made falsehoods somehow appear like reality and turn to an unprovoked tale that spread,” she said.
Komuro has not been to Japan in three years.
Soon after the marriage was postponed he moved to New York. He studied law at Fordham University, Bronx, before landing a job as a clerk at Lowenstein Sandler, Manhattan, where he advised investors and companies on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings and mergers.
Komuro had not been to Japan for three years, and he only returned to Japan in September for preparations for his wedding. After arriving at Narita Airport with a ponytail, which is considered disrespectful, Komuro received negative publicity.
He was also criticised for wearing a pin-striped suit to visit his future in-laws in 2017. He wore pinstripes once more during his marriage ceremony (pictured).
He had become so disillusioned with his homeland that he didn’t return once to see his fiancée until going back in September to prepare for his wedding.
His trip brought even more negative publicity. Conservatives were shocked to see him arrive at Narita Airport wearing a ponytail that he had cut before getting married.
They called his hairstyle “disrespectful” and made a big deal of it when they noticed that he wore a pin-striped suit to visit his future in-laws rather than a solid-colored suit. He was also married in pinstripes.
He was also criticised because of his body language. His enemies claim that he keeps too much cash in his pockets.
But despite the negative feeling towards Komuro, the Japan Times called him ‘a polite and upstanding man.’
He was announced as the winner of the New York State Bar Association’s annual student competition for writing a piece about ‘compliance issues in website accessibility and implications to entrepreneurs’ on the day of their marriage.
His prize was a $2,000 check, which will not go far towards the $1.35million Mako gave up under pressure from an indifferent Japanese public. This amount was paid to the two princesses that have previously left the royal family.
High profile: Princess Mako of Japan, right, donned a traditional Jūnihitoe as she took part in a procession through Tokyo’s Imperial Palace to mark her uncle’s formal ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019
The photo shows Princess Mako, Akishin, left, before her graduation ceremony at International Christian University, Mitaka, Tokyo on 26 March 2014. She will be stripped off her royal title and cannot return to the family if she is divorced.
Only male members are allowed to marry commoners’ in Japan, so Mako’s decision not to marry for love is a big deal for her.
She is not considered a princess anymore – even if she marries and ends in divorce, she cannot return to the family.
She will be known simply as Mako Komuro, for the first-ever time in her life.
She will also need to apply for a passport. Royals don’t require them.
She cannot live in the Imperial Palace any longer. The couple will not have any sons to succeed them in the male-only emperorship.
This could create a problem in Japan as there are only three people permitted by the Imperial Household Law for Japan to succeed the 61-year old Emperor Naruhito. One of those, his uncle Masohito (85), is also allowed.
The couple read prepared statements at the press conference in which they apologized for any distress caused by their marriage, but also defended their decision not to cancel the ceremony.
There were also no official portraits, like these ones taken of then-Crown Prince Prince Naruhito and his wife Crown Princess Masako with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko after their wedding at the Imperial Palace June 9, 1993 in Tokyo
The other two are Nauruhito’s 55-year old brother Akishino, Mako’s father, and Mako’s brother Hisahito.
The couple attributes Mako’s negative publicity to Mako’s health decline.
The Imperial Household Agency reported earlier this year she was suffering from post-traumatic Stress Disorder due to public pressure.
The protestors gathered in Tokyo to hold signs against the marriage, making it even worse.