Japan’s Princess Mako to ‘move into one-bed New York flat’ with husband after losing royal status

Mako Komuro, known until this week as Princess Mako of Japan, is reportedly set to move into a rented studio apartment in New York with her new husband after losing her royal status on their marriage.

The accommodation would be very different from the spacious grounds of the luxurious Akasaka Estate, in central Tokyo, where the 30-year-old former princess grew up.

Watch: Japan's Princess Mako weds commoner and loses royal status

Mrs Komuro and her husband, Kei Komuro, announced plans to quit Japan after a financial scandal involving the groom’s mother caused a public backlash and led to media coverage so vicious it left the ex-princess with PTSD.

Japanese media reported that the couple would seek a one-bed flat in the US and live on the income of Mr Komuro.

He recently joined a mid-sized law firm with a likely yearly salary of £125,000. Rents in sought-after areas of New York begin at £2,500 a month and quickly rise to more than £8,000 a month.

The reported arrangement stands in sharp contrast to that of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, to whom the Japanese couple have been compared. Since leaving the UK, the British royals have set up in an ultra-modern £11 million home in California, and signed lucrative deals with a number of entertainment companies.

Women are forced to leave the Japanese Imperial Family when they marry a commoner. Mrs Komuro turned down a traditional £1 million compensation payment for this loss of status.

Mrs Komuro - who has an MA in Art Museum and Gallery Studies at the University of Leicester and completed a course in art history at the University of Edinburgh - is expected to seek work as a curator at one of New York’s modern art museums, Japan’s TV Asahi reported on Thursday, without providing further details.

Following their wedding on Tuesday, the couple are expected to remain in Tokyo for the next two weeks, with their movements followed closely by the media.

In that time, Mrs Komuro is submitting the paperwork necessary to begin her life as a former royal - applying for a non-diplomatic passport and an international driving licence.

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