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He's been dating her since 2012 and has had to watch his family dragged through the mud. Can you imagine what it's like to have your father's death publicly scrutinized and have your mother called a crazy cult member and your uncle accused of being a mob boss? The tabloid media drove Meghan...

Yes, the government can work it out. That said, I hate tying the payment to him in any way. It’s her money; the payment is about her. If she’s performed her Imperial princess duties well, she should get the money regardless of who she marries. To reduce the amount she receives because the...

The exact amount she gets is determined by the government Cabinet, but I believe the maximum possible is $1 million dollars US. So, we aren’t talking about a large amount of money. Especially considering that she was not allowed to pursue serious employment as a young adult. If she’d been...

My understanding is that the Japanese Imperial Family is much, much more controlled than western royal families. They have no money or property of their own or private source of income. Members who work are only allowed to have part time nonprofit jobs (Mako works at a museum part time). What is...

A U.S. law firm can sponsor his visa, that’s not a problem. Very commonly done. My recollection is that the law firm Kei worked for as a paralegal in Japan helped pay his law school tuition. In that case, he’d be obligated to return to them after graduation for some period of time, I would...

The British tabloid culture is terrible too, absolutely. (..) Why is it necessary for someone to have a stable income? Historically, yes, because the couple would immediately start having children. But now we have birth control. Kei Komuro and the princess could’ve married three years ago and...

The tabloid media and social media trolls seem especially awful in Japan. I remember reading that Princess Aiko left elementary school for a while because of bullying. That seemed crazy: why would anyone bully a princess? Wouldn’t people want to be friends with her, or at least not get on her...

Evidence to prove what? All I said was that Mako is an adult and is entitled to marry who she wants and receive a payment when she leaves the royal family. Those are facts. I’d encourage you to take a step back. As I said before, none of us (including you!) knows what Kei is like as a person...

JunJun, you seem obsessed with hating Kei Komuro - can I ask why? What is your goal with your obsession? What is the harm that you think will happen if Mako marries him? You just compared underestimating him to underestimating a deadly and highly contagious disease, which seems...irrationally...

I think any ballot that results in 97.6% of people agreeing about anything is suspect. That’s a “dictator-declares-victory” number.

None of us will ever know what kind of person Kei Komuro is, or what stories are true and what stories the tabloids made up. And it doesn’t matter. This is 100% about Mako and whether people respect her autonomy. The imperial family’s structure was set up decades ago: women must leave the...

Prisma, thank you so much for the update! I’m puzzled by the former fiancé. He created this mess in the first place by going to the tabloids and saying he was owed money. When Kei released a statement saying they’d resolved the issue, the fiancé responded publicly that it wasn’t resolved and he...

The Windsors go abroad a lot. Of course we only know what gets reported in the papers, and usually they slip away without anyone ever knowing. William proposed to Kate at a favorite retreat of his in Kenya, where he’d vacationed many times. After only dating a few weeks, Harry and Meghan met up...

Prisma, you are a wealth of knowledge, thank you! I particularly appreciate the links. It looks like Mako and Kei were riding public transportation together in 2016; it’s great she has sufficient freedom to do that. Why is it hard for them to travel abroad? It seems like traveling abroad gives...

I think you’re right on their mentality, but I disagree with it. She’s 29 years old and knows what standard of living Kei can provide. If she’s decided that she’d rather not live an upper-class lifestyle and instead be married to him, that should be respected. When thinking about all this, is...

It’s interesting how our cultural backgrounds color our views. As an American, it doesn’t seem weird to me that a guy would propose to someone before he’s earned a lot of money. They’re adults; they can figure it out. It’s not like olden-days where a man needed strong finances from the get-go...

I wonder if Mako and Kako want to stay princesses. I saw Princess Kako was pretty blunt at one point about how she wanted her sister to marry and be happy and people shouldn’t listen to all the lies in the press. I’d imagine it’s hard - growing up in the imperial family is rather like growing up...

I read about Princess Mako and Kei Komuro’s situation for the first time today, and immediately fell down a rabbit hole of fascination and bewilderment. This thread has been really informative. So thank you! I have many questions. How restricted is Princess Mako’s life, as a member of the...