Japan’s Princess Mako has postponed her wedding to her college sweetheart until 2020, sparking speculation that alleged money trouble involving the fiance’s mother could have thrown a spanner in the works.
In an announcement that came completely out of the blue, the 26-year-old eldest granddaughter of Emperor Akihito cited time constraints as the reason to delay the formal engagement.
“We have come to realize that we do not have enough time to prepare for the ceremonies and our new life before the wedding planned in autumn,” she said in a statement released through the Imperial Household Agency yesterday.
Mako and Kei Komuro, also 26, had been scheduled to be formally engaged in a traditional court ceremony next month before their wedding on Nov. 4.
The Imperial Household Agency insisted the couple still want to wed and denied any connection between the postponement and a series of magazine articles about the alleged money trouble of the Komuro family.
However, speculation is swirling that there could be more than meets the eye to the postponement, which was leading yesterday’s television news programs.
For weeks, gossip magazines have been delving into the finances of Komuro’s mother, who is widowed.
Late last month, Japan’s two biggest weeklies, each quoting an acquaintance of “a former fiance” of the mother, reported she had not repaid more than ￥4 million (US$36,720) she had borrowed from him.
The man called off the engagement after she asked for money so often, the reports said.
The money was reportedly spent on supporting the single-parent household and her son’s school tuition, including six months at a US university.
However, the Komuros said they thought the money was “a gift,” the Shukan Shincho weekly reported.
“There have been worried voices in the Imperial Household Agency since the money trouble was reported,” the Asahi Shimbun said.
“Even an ordinary family would have cold feet over their beloved daughter’s marriage if weekly magazines wrote this much,” tabloids quoted an anonymous “top official of the Imperial Household Agency” as saying.
Kei Komuro late on Tuesday declined to comment, merely bowing deeply to a swarm of reporters waiting for him to finish work.
In her statement, the princess said the couple needed to announce their informal engagement “much earlier than planned” after the news leaked out in May last year.
Schedules for events concerned were then announced in November last year, but she admitted this might have been done “too hastily.”
“We should have thought twice carefully whether the pace was actually right for us... Now, we’d like to have the marriage, a major life event, in a better way,” she said.
She apologized to those planning the royal wedding, blaming the young couple’s “immaturity.”
They have already informed the emperor and empress that wedding-related ceremonies will be delayed until 2020.
The imperial family has a packed schedule next year as the 84-year-old Akihito is to abdicate on April 30 — the first time for more than two centuries that a Japanese emperor has stepped down.
Mako is the eldest daughter of Prince Akishino, Naruhito’s brother, and Princess Kiko.
The Nikkei Shimbun warned against labeling Kei Komuro as not suitable as a partner for the royal.
“It would be a shame for a democratic country if concerns and criticism about family lineage or economic resources caused pressure,” it said, adding that it could create serious problems for future royal marriages.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS