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Case file s539 · Royalty · 2021
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2021
Mako Komuro: Mako Komuro, formely Princess Mako of Akishino (cropped)
Mako Komuro. 日本国政府. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
living; married 26 October 2021
Place
Tokyo, Japan; New York, USA
Field
Royalty (Japan, Imperial House) · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition
Imperial House Law (1947), Article 12
Historical event
Japanese imperial succession shortage
Religion
Mako Komuro: Shinto (recorded as Shinto on Wikidata)
RoyaltyCrowns and successionNowNorth AmericaEast AsiaUnited States

Japan's Princess Mako refused a ¥140 million payout to marry a commoner and lost her royal status

Under Japan's Imperial House Law, a princess who marries a commoner leaves the imperial family; only men inherit the throne. Princess Mako, niece of Emperor Naruhito, announced her engagement to Kei Komuro in 2017. Magazines then reported that his mother owed ¥4 million to a former fiancé, some of it spent on Komuro's tuition. The wedding was postponed for four years. In October 2021 the palace said Mako had complex post-traumatic stress disorder. She married Komuro on 26 October 2021 by registration, with no ceremonies, and refused the taxpayer-funded lump sum given to departing princesses, reported at ¥140 million (about $1.3 million). She was the first to decline it. Komuro paid his mother's former fiancé a settlement in November 2021. The couple moved to New York, where he works as a lawyer. In May 2025 the Imperial Household Agency announced the birth of their first child. With only one young male heir, Prince Hisahito, the Diet has debated whether princesses may keep their status after marriage.

What the law took from it

A family rule that removes members on marriage reduces the pool of heirs each generation.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia
  2. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Japan's Princess Mako refused a ¥140 million payout to marry a commoner and lost her royal status,” story s539, https://www.celebrity.estate/japans-princess-mako-refused-a-140-2021, updated 30 October 2026.

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