Fury Over Princess Mako and Kei Komuro’s Marriage in Japan and Ugly Uproar: Intolerant Japanese Society
The controversial royal couple finally comes to marry and it triggers anger among some nationals in Japan. Princess Mako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito, is going to marry his commoner boyfriend Kei Komuro. The two announced their will of engagement and marriage in 2017, but the marriage has been postponed for more than three years. This is mainly because of a financial dispute between Mr Komuro’s mother and her former fiance. Many other problems around Mr Komuro and his family are reported and some people have urged the couple and the government to cancel this delayed marriage.
This month, the situations around their marriage finally started to change and the criticism over this marriage is going crazy. Several media, including NHK, said that the couple would get married this October, without having any Sinto ceremonies. It is also said that Princess Mako would decline to receive the payment for female royals marrying commoners and giving up their royal title. Now Mr Komuro is back in Japan and as this controversial marriage is becoming a reality, some people against this marriage are going frenzy on the Internet. Several articles are now published in English by many news websites too.
I am not going to talk about more details of their marriage here, but I want to tell how some people are making extreme criticism of Princess Mako and Mr Komuro. The anti comments are going too far. On Twitter and Yahoo! News, you can see many mean comments over this marriage and the couple. Even though comments especially on Yahoo! News Japan are known as so bossy and angry (and often right-wing and conservative), this marriage is going by far viral than other news, even news related to COVID19.
The uproar advocates like “The majority of Japanese nationals are against this marriage, so they need to stop”, “We can’t bear with the fact that our precious money is used for this thief manipulating imperial title for themselves”, “Princess Mako needs to repay all the money spent for her throughout her life”, or something like these comments. These mean comments do not stop even after reports telling Princess Mako would not receive the payout. Now even Mr Komuro’s latest hair, long hair and a ponytail, caused an uproar among some people on the Internet too. (edit 1/10/2021: Even after the announcement from the Imperial Household Agencies saying the princess is suffering complex PTSD, some people criticise her saying “You don’t understand why you are criticised, how can you blame us for your mental illness?” ’“Blame your boyfriend, his family and you own choice ignoring nationals, not us the nationals!”)
It is true that Mr Komuro has some troubles around him, which his family might have caused and he might have caused. Even so, people just watching the news would never know the truth. The comments are highly based on the assumptions of the commentators. They believe that they are right and that their opinions should have a solid power to make the couple, Imperial Household Agencies, and the government cancel this marriage. They say they are opposing this marriage for the nation and nationals, but they do not really take any concrete actions and just shout their justice either. There are only a few protest actions, such as petitions, rallies and marches. They are just complaining online, or just among similar people and do nothing.
This kind of behaviour, which interferes with someone’s rights by brandishing the sword of own justice, is common when adapting something new or different. Japanese society is known for remaining strong discrimination against women, having a lack of understanding of LGBTQ, etc. Some criticism over Princess Mako is proving gender problems in Japan, saying like “I’m sure she cannot really work and doesn’t have skills,” “She, a stupid lady raised by our tax, needs to obey us.” People are putting themselves in a higher position as “nationals” and feeling content by bossing the princess and her fiance.
What this uproar reminds me is how intolerant Japanese society is. Same-sex marriage and having different sir names between couples are still prohibited. There are still a few numbers of women in management positions and the parliament. The strong belief, that women need to follow their husbands and fathers, remains and if they tell their opinions they would be considered as arrogant. Not all people follow the old customs, but the society still holds these discriminations in systems. The people attacking the couple are typical examples of this and sadly the fury on the Internet proved that so many people still refuse to respect others if not meeting their expectations of normality. This couple is going their unique way and behaving differently from other former female royals losing their imperial title to marry their husbands and they do not like that.
They would refute saying like, “We are against this marriage because the fiance is not trustworthy enough for marrying the royal and using our tax.” However, taking into account that only a few actions besides yelling on Yahoo! News and Twitter are going on, their abusive comments are just for their satisfaction.
The imperial family have limitations of human rights as their existence depends on the nation and nationals, but they are still human. Yes, they use tax and live without many physical difficulties. At the same time, they are obliged to be decent and nice people in public and work for the nation throughout their lives as the imperial family. Female members of the imperial family in Japan can leave the family almost only when they get married to commoners. Male members almost cannot exit from the family. This situation must be beyond us, commoners’ imagination. In this modern society in the developed country, it is obvious that nationals should not threaten the imperial family with their tax. The overheat uproar of this marriage is no longer opinion-sharing, but I would say it’s threatening.
I hope that the energetic protesters would talk more constructive opinions and take more actions to realise their justice, not just yelling ugly online. But sadly, I know that they would not. They would just label me as a shallow liberal young woman who lacks knowledge of the Japanese imperial family. Then again, that proves the intolerance in our Japanese society.
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Please be aware that I am not a native speaker of English. I tried my best, but my expressions might not exactly show my intentions.
