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On Tuesday, Japan’s Princess Mako — a niece of Emperor Naruhito — wed her lawyer fiancé, Kei Komuro, in a ceremony that was distinctly lacking in the usual bells and whistles.
When you think of royal nuptials, you tend to think of allout celebrations complete with a lavish public ceremony, thousands of well-wishers lining the streets, and a country caught up in wedding fever. But that wasn’t quite the case here.
This muted affair also marked the end of Mako’s time as a royal. The newlyweds are expected to move to New York City, where Komuro works at a law firm.
While some may draw comparisons between the couple and the British royal family, the parallels are somewhat superficial.
Sure, it’s become fairly routine these days for royals to find their “happily ever after” with commoners. In the Windsor clan alone, we’ve seen the Queen’s sister Princess Margaret marrying photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones, William and Kate and, of course, Harry and Meghan. But marrying a non-royal has also been accepted in wider European royal monarchies: Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik wed marketing executive Mary Donaldson, and Spain’s then-Crown Prince Felipe married former CNN+ anchor Letizia Ortiz.
And yes, exiting a royal family after falling for a commoner — one disapproved of by some — bears a resemblance to the Sussexes. Harry and Meghan famously stepped back as working royals, in favor of a new life in California, but don’t expect the Japanese newlyweds to follow suit.
“British royal family members grow up among great wealth. And they also spend a lot of time directly raising money for charitable causes, so know how it works,” says Ken Ruoff, director of the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University. “So when Harry and Meghan went to the US, by telling various stories about the royal family, they managed to make millions and millions of dollars, all the while draping themselves in feel-good, left-wing causes.”
Ruoff says Mako’s departure is a “dramatic…
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Source : cnn
