Behind the Scenes of the Marriage Conference: The Komuro Family and Their Former Fiancee’s “Under-the-Surface Negotiation Battle” – The Full Story

Kei Komuro (30) and Mako Mako (30) were in the underground parking lot of a large hospital in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward at around 7 p.m. on October 29. A reporter for a national newspaper in charge of the Imperial Household Agency said.

“Mako’s grandfather, Tatsuhiko Kawashima, 81, has been hospitalized here because of his health condition. It seems that the two of them visited him that day, partly to introduce Mr. Komuro to Mr. Kawashima.

On that day, Kako, 26, a member of the Akishino family, was also present at the hospital, and the two smiled and waved to Kako before parting. However, as soon as Kako left the scene, Mako’s face became serious, a complete change from before. Mr. Komuro was standing next to her, watching her with a worried expression.

There was a reason why Mako’s expression was so clouded. One reason was that Mr. Komuro had failed to pass the bar exam in New York State, USA.

“On October 29, the list of those who passed the exam was uploaded to the website, and there was an uproar when Komuro’s name was not on it. On the following day, the 30th, NHK reported that Mr. Komuro had not passed the exam. If he is unable to become a lawyer, Mr. Komuro’s salary at the local law firm is expected to go down significantly.

At the end of September, the Komuro family announced that they would negotiate directly with Mr. A, the former fiancé of their mother, Kayo, and even before the October 26 wedding press conference, the Komuro family and Mr. A had been battling behind the scenes over the negotiations.

Mr. A said, “Mr. Naofumi Ueshiba, the lawyer representing the Komuro family, offered to negotiate directly with Mr. A, so I told him through my representative, ‘Why don’t we meet before the wedding conference? I told him through my agent, “Why don’t we meet before the wedding conference? However, there was no clear response from the other side, citing security issues and other reasons. Shortly before the press conference, we lost contact with Mr. Ueshiba, and in the end, we were unable to have a discussion before the press conference.

That’s what my ex-fiancee, Mr. A, told me. In fact, more than a week before the wedding conference, Mr. Kamishibai took a certain action.

“On October 17, he sent a letter to Kei. After Mr. Ueshiba approached me to negotiate with him directly, I asked him if it was really his intention and what he said, but there was no clear answer. So I sent a letter to tell them my true feelings and to ask what Kei-kun is really thinking right now.

The letter was published in this magazine. This is the original letter written by Mr. A. When he actually sent it to the other party, he retyped it on his computer and sent it to the Komuro family’s representative by e-mail. The letter contains Mr. A’s frank thoughts as follows (the editorial staff adjusted the paragraphs and corrected typos and omissions as necessary).

When I read that article (Editor’s note: refers to the “Komuro Documents” of April this year), I was shocked. I felt that it was not written by the Kei-kun I knew. I imagine that there must have been complicated circumstances. That’s why I wanted to know Kei’s intentions before meeting him in person.

No response at all.

The 28 pages of the Komuro document, in which the Komuro family’s arguments were stated in a one-sided manner, caused a huge public outcry and led to a resurgence of “criticism of Ms. Komuro. However, Mr. A thinks that there may have been some circumstances behind the release of the document, and is concerned about his position. Mr. A also expressed his desire for direct negotiations.

I don’t want to put you all through more heartache with Kayo’s health problems and then Mako’s illness. If Kei would like to make a proposal on behalf of Kayo, I would just like to have an honest talk with her alone.

However, there has been no response to this letter from Mr. Komuro or his representative. Mr. A says, “I wrote a detailed letter to Mr. Komuro, including some of the things I hadn’t revealed to him, and it’s sad that he hasn’t responded to it. After the press conference, the two sides continued to exchange information about the negotiations.

“A little while after the press conference, the other side’s representative started contacting my representative again. After the press conference, the other side’s representative contacted my representative again, and we almost agreed to meet at the end of October at the other side’s office. However, that meeting was cancelled due to the request from the other side. Why did things change so many times? I don’t understand their intentions at all.” (Mr. A)

Shuichi Kanda, an imperial family journalist, spoke.

Shuichi Kanda, an imperial family journalist, says, “The press conference on October 26 could hardly be called a press conference, but at that press conference, Mr. Komuro said, ‘I want to do everything I can to resolve [the money issue]. Despite this, I think it is strange that he did not respond to the letters and calls for negotiations from his former fiancée, who is a party to the problem. I don’t think the public will be able to understand this.

The day of the trip to the United States is fast approaching.

From the November 19, 2021 issue of “FRIDAY