Life goes on for the woman once known as Princess Mako of Japan. The ex-royal is said to have dabbled in employment, just like any other commoner has to.
According to The Cut, the ex-Princess, who now goes by her married name of Mako Komuro, has been hired as an intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the iconic institution whose Costume Institute plays host to the annual Met Gala. She is working to arrange an exhibition about a 13th-century monk as a “unpaid volunteer”— those degrees she has in art and cultural heritage from the International Christian University and art museums and gallery studies from the University of Leicester are certainly proving useful.
Since her wedding to lawyer Kei Komuro last November, the 30-year-old has been living in New York City. The wedding was repeatedly postponed when the Japanese public and media took issue with both Kei’s familial links (his mother owes an outstanding debt) and his hairstyle (a ponytail). At the time of their marriage, they refused all traditional wedding rites, including the 152.5-million-yen payout typically granted to royal brides departing the family.
As dictated by a decades-old legislation enacted in 1947, princesses of Japan’s imperial household must leave the royal family upon marrying a commoner, and with no Japanese princes to marry, they are left with very few options. Because of the law change, 11 branches of the Japanese royal family (totaling 51 members) were abruptly given commoner status, and eight members of the current royal line were forced to leave the family owing to marriage. The law was also changed to forbid women from inheriting the Chrysanthemum Throne.
After a recent succession crisis was narrowly avoided by the birth of a long-awaited prince – the first male heir to be born into the family in 40 years – it has been the subject of much debate in Japan in recent years.