Princess Mako, the granddaughter of Japan’s Emperor Akihito, is getting married to a beach tourism worker she met in a restaurant.
Along with the diktats of tradition, the Princess will be forced to resign her royal status and will become a commoner before the upcoming union can go ahead.
Princess Mako will marry 25-year-old Kei Komuro, whom she met in a restaurant while the couple both attended the International Christian University in Tokyo, reports Mainichi.
According to a report on the public broadcaster, NHK, Komuro is a sea-loving, violin-playing, culinary genius of a catch, who once worked as ‘Prince of the Sea’ to promote tourism to the beaches of Shonan in Kanagawa prefecture.
NHK added the Japanese royal family have been introduced to Komuro and do approve. However, Princess Mako will have to formally announced her intentions to wed – in a similar ritual to an engagement period.
Then a date for the wedding will be picked and the couple will make a formal report to the emperor and empress.
The enigmatic Japanese royal family are notoriously private, only making public appearances during cultural ceremonies and trips abroad, so little is known about Princess Mako.
The well-educated royal was the first member of the Japanese imperial family to attend university, studying for an arts and cultural property degree at Edinburgh University on an exchange, as well as achieving a masters in art museum and gallery studies from the University of Leicester in January 2016.
She is currently studying on a doctorate programme at the International Christian University.
Princess Mako’s marriage will require her to live as a commoner, and the young princess, aged 25, will be giving up her status for love.
Women can’t succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne in Japan. Princess Mako’s father and her younger brother, who is just 10-years-old, are in line to succeed Emperor Akihito after her uncle, Crown Prince Naruhito, who is first in line.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.