It will be the first engagement among the four grandchildren of the emperor and Empress Michiko
Princess Mako, the first grandchild of Japanese Emperor Akihito and the elder daughter of Prince Akishino, will soon become engaged to a man who went to the same university in Tokyo, the Imperial Household Agency said on Tuesday. The 25-year-old princess will become engaged to Kei Komuro, a 25-year-old graduate student at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University who lives in Kohoku Ward in Yokohama, near Tokyo, and who also works at a law firm, agency chief Shinichiro Yamamoto said. It will be the first engagement among the four grandchildren of the emperor and Empress Michiko. The last marriage of a Japanese princess took place in October 2014 when Princess Noriko, the 28-year-old daughter of Emperor Akihito’s late cousin Prince Takamado, tied the knot with Kunimaro Senge, the eldest son of the chief priest of Izumo Taisha, a Shinto shrine in Shimane Prefecture. Princess Mako met Komuro about five years ago through a friend at International Christian University, which they both attended, and later accepted a marriage proposal from him, according to an agency source. Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko have accepted the two as a couple, the source said. The news comes at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is preparing a bill for submission to the current Diet session to enable the 83-year-old emperor to hand over the Chrysanthemum throne to Crown Prince Naruhito, in what would be Japan’s first abdication in around 200 years.
