The Imperial Household Agency will formally announce, possibly on Friday, the schedule for Princess Mako's marriage to her boyfriend Kei Komuro, an agency source said Wednesday, amid public unease over a financial dispute involving his mother.
The agency is set to lay out the details of the couple's marriage, such as when the princess, a niece of Emperor Naruhito, and Komuro, both 29, will hold a joint press conference and when they will leave for the United States to start a new life, according to the source.
Following a string of media reports on the financial dispute, the agency will likely forgo the usual rites associated with imperial family members' weddings, such as an official engagement ceremony called "Nosai no Gi," and a "Choken no Gi" officially meeting with the emperor and empress prior to marriage.
While female imperial family members traditionally receive a lump-sum payment of up to around 150 million yen ($1.3 million) upon their departure from the household, the agency will likely accept Princess Mako's unprecedented request not to receive any such payment, according to the source.
Under the current rules, female imperial family members lose their royal status upon marrying commoners. The payments, financed by taxpayers, are intended to maintain the dignity of former royal family members.
If Princess Mako, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito, does not receive the payment and skips the rites, it will be the first time for a female royal member marrying a commoner in Japan's postwar history.
The agency is also expected to explain the reasons behind its unusual response to the couple's marriage.
Komuro returned to Japan on Monday for the first time in three years since leaving for New York in August 2018 to study at Fordham University's law school, from which he graduated with a Juris Doctor degree in May this year.
He has since been self-isolating at his mother's home in Yokohama near Tokyo as required by the country's coronavirus quarantine rules.
Komuro and the princess met in 2012 as students at International Christian University in Tokyo and were unofficially engaged in September 2017.
Their wedding was initially scheduled to take place on Nov. 4, 2018, but the agency announced in February that year the postponement of ritual ceremonies related to their marriage following reports about the financial dispute.
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