Lowenstein Sandler law clerk marries Japan's Princess Mako
Kei Komuro and Japanese Princess Mako in September 2017 attending a press conference in Tokyo’s Motoakasaka district. After a nearly three-year postponement of their marriage, the princess and Komuro married Oct. 26. Photo from Kyodo News via the Associated Press.
Updated: A recent law grad clerking at Lowenstein Sandler in New York married Japan’s Princess Mako on Tuesday.
Kei Komuro’s marriage to the princess is big news in Japan, report Reuters, the Japan Times, CNN and the Independent.
Though the marriage was low-key, there was “a poignant expression of romantic devotion” in a news conference that followed, the New York Times reports.
“I love Mako,” Komuro said. “I would like to spend my one life with the person I love.”
Komuro is a commoner, which means that Princess Mako was required to leave the imperial family after the marriage.
Komuro and Princess Mako met in 2012 when they were undergraduates at the International Christian University in Tokyo. Komuro is awaiting bar results after taking the bar exam in July. He graduated from the Fordham University School of Law in May.
Komuro’s marriage took place the same day he was being recognized by the New York State Bar Association’s Business Law Section for winning first place in a writing contest.
The section described Komuro as a recent law grad who counsels entrepreneurs, emerging companies and investors on venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, entity formation and general corporate matters at Lowenstein Sandler. He formerly worked in Tokyo at a law firm and a foreign exchange bank.
Komuro traveled back to Japan in September. The couple registered their marriage at a government office Tuesday. Traditional ceremonies didn’t take place. The couple will settle in New York after the marriage.
Komuro has shorn a ponytail that caused a firestorm on social media when he arrived in Japan.
Komuro and Princess Mako were “unofficially engaged” in September 2017, according to the Japan Times. Their wedding, originally scheduled for November 2018, was postponed, possibly because of an unresolved $35,000-plus financial dispute between Komuro’s mother and her former fiance.
Princess Mako, who was working as a researcher at the museum of the University of Tokyo, will forgo nearly $1.35 million in taxpayer money given to women who leave the imperial family, the Washington Post previously reported.
Updated Oct. 28 at 4:09 p.m. to report that the marriage took place Tuesday.
