Japan’s Princess Mako’s low-key wedding is unlike lavish royal unions Asia has seen, from Malaysia to Brunei

The controversy over her wedding is a far cry from the frenzy over other royal unions, such as Charles and Diana’s and that of Malaysia’s Kelantan sultan to a Russian beauty queen

Asia’s continued fascination with royal lives comes from ‘a mixture of nostalgia, nationalism and celebrity worship’, and their mostly apolitical roles, observers say

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Japan’s Princess Mako is set to relinquish her royal title after her marriage. File photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 26 Oct 2021Updated: 7:29am, 26 Oct 2021

Japan’s Princess Mako will on Tuesday register her marriage to her university sweetheart Kei Komuro, a 30-year-old commoner, without any of the traditional, festive rites.

The princess, also 30, will then relinquish her title, as is customary for women who marry outside the Imperial Family. She has declined a payment of some US$1.35 million from taxpayers usually given to women who leave the royal family, and is expected to move into a Tokyo condominium after which she will leave for the US to start a new life in New York City with her husband.

In the run-up to the marriage, the Japanese public and tabloid media have weighed in negatively on the union due to a financial controversy involving Komuro’s family. The relentless criticism on social media has led to the princess suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

It’s a far cry from the fairy tale setting of other royal weddings that have gripped the public imagination across Asia.

In 1981, when then-Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, married Lady Diana Spencer, the media worldwide went into overdrive. In Hong Kong, which was still a colony, the occasion was declared a public holiday and the city celebrated with parties, commemorative stamps and Union Flags.

Thirty years later in April 2011, when Prince William, the son of the late Diana and Charles, the Prince of Wales, married Catherine Middleton in April 2011 it took the world by storm with its immense coverage, similar to the wedding of William’s brother, Harry, to US actress Meghan Markle in 2018.

The weddings of Charles and Diana in 1981 (left), and of William and Kate in 2011. File photos: AFP

Even Russia’s first “royal wedding” – featuring a descendant of the Russian imperial throne, held by the Romanov family whose dynasty was toppled by the 1917 Bolshevik revolution toppled the Romanov monarchy – was talked about on social media.