Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Will Mako and Kei be the Japanese Harry and Meghan?

Kei Komuro and Princess Mako (photo: Getty)

A young royal, seen as a potential future star, falls in love with a commoner and chooses to leave the gilded cage and a life of dutiful service to marry and live a ‘normal’ life in America. The match is controversial for various reasons, not least the royal’s mental health and the non-royal’s family problems; but, after a certain amount of reflection, the marriage goes ahead. The couple settles into a new life stateside, and…

Sound familiar? The tale of Princess Mako, the 29-year-old niece of Japanese emperor Naruhito, and her fiancé Kei Komuro is a sort of miniaturised inverted Japanese version of the Meghan and Harry story, albeit with a few twists. One difference is that Mako and Kei will not have a stylish wedding, with no carriage and not even a ceremony. The event, scheduled for October 26, will be so low key and perfunctory that, just like a Japanese execution, the public will not know any of the details until after it has happened.

Few in Japan doubt that Princess Mako is enamoured of Kei Komuro but there is considerable speculation that there is also an ‘I’m a Japanese royal get me out of here’ element to Mako’s decision to leave. I once interviewed the Princess, and this theory matched the pleasant, perfectly ordinary but prematurely jaded young woman I met. The princess, clearly irritated by the beady-eyed chaperone watching her every move, seemed suffused with ennui, as she endured my scripted questions – another dreary ritual in a life replete with them.

A high boredom threshold is a necessity for any royal perhaps, but especially a Japanese one. Sitting ‘seiza’ style for hours on end in exquisite but uncomfortable kimonos as a priest incants ancient incomprehensible Japanese at a shrine ceremony, or accompanying the emperor on trips to smallholdings to bless the rice crop, or greeting the latest cohort of centenarians at the palace, are examples of the daily routine.

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