Kei Komuro Awaits Test Results and Anxious To Report to Her Father-in-Law, Prince Akishino

Kei Komuro, 30, took the U.S. New York State Bar Admission Test on July 26 and 27, local time. This was his third attempt, following his first in July of last year and his second in February of this year.

It was reported that, upon receiving the announcement that he had failed the exam the second time, he revealed to the head of the law firm where he had worked before studying abroad that he had fallen five points short of passing. I was concerned that he went out of his way to mention a specific number. The passing line for the exam is set at 266 points or more out of 400 points, and I felt that he wanted to emphasize that he was one step, or even half a step, away from passing the exam. This may be a somewhat mean-spirited way of looking at it,” said a journalist from the Imperial Household.

As this journalist said, this examination is not based on a fixed number of passing quotas, but rather on an absolute evaluation, with a score of approximately 65% or more of the total score required to pass the examination.

On July 26, there is a three-hour written paper exam in the morning and afternoon, and on July 27, there is a 100-question mark-sheet exam, also in the morning and afternoon.

Mr. Komuro made his first attempt exactly one year ago last July, and while the pass rate for first-time examinees was 78%, this rate has dropped to 18% for those taking the exam for the second time or later. First-time examinees tend to have a higher pass rate because they are able to prepare for the exam immediately after graduating from college or law school and before starting their careers. On the other hand, second-time and later examinees often have to study for the exam while holding down a job, and as a result tend to neglect their studies,” he said.

Two weeks have passed since the third exam, and how did it go?

The first person to whom you should tell how you feel after the exam is not only Mako, but also the head of the law firm where you worked before studying abroad, and naturally, Prince Akishino would be one of them. However, we were told that no particular report had been made to Akishino no Miya,” said a source close to the Akishino family.

Before the first examination, Kei is said to have told Akishino no Miya and Noriko that he was “confident of passing the examination.

At that point, Mr. and Mrs. Komuro were still unmarried. It is extremely rare for a member of the Imperial Family to marry an ‘unemployed’ partner, and the situation was particularly difficult for the Imperial Household Agency to envision, and Kei must have been aware of this. She had expressed her confidence in her success to Prince Akishino and the Imperial Household Agency. ……

When the door was opened, the rejection was announced on October 29, three days after the couple’s marriage, which only made the timing more inopportune.

Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss the substance of the third attempt too lightly, since some say, “No news is good news.” ……

In a book written by a journalist who has known Akishinomiya for a long time and who has compiled his firsthand account, Akishinomiya states, “Kei-san is not obsessed with becoming a lawyer.” Perhaps that is true, and one gets the sense that Akishino no Miya has always hoped for ‘a marriage that would be understood by the public, that would make the two of them happy, and that would be suitable for their stature. I am sure that Prince Akishino’s wishes have been conveyed to Mr. and Mrs. Komuro, and it would be nice if they could at least report the completion of the examination. I think it would have been better if they had at least reported the completion of the exam to her and Mrs. Akishino. ……

The distance between Mr. and Mrs. Komuro and Prince Akishino may be greater than the distance between Tokyo and New York.