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The people of Japan are looking forward to royal nuptials next year, after it was confirmed Princess Sayako is to tie the knot. Emperor Akihito's only daughter will wed Yoshiki Kuroda, a Tokyo government official, sometime in 2005.
Sources at the Imperial Household Agency say Akihito and his wife Michiko have already given their blessing to the union. Sayako and Yoshiki were classmates at Tokyo's elite Gakushuin University, but they have reportedly known each other since childhood.
News of the engagement was greeted with joy in Japan, where there has been intense interest in whom the imperial daughter might choose as a husband. At 35, Sayako has waited longer than most of her compatriots to make her vows. The relationship has come as something of a surprise because there were no rumours of a romance, but the pair have apparently been dating for two years.
The princess' husband-to-be, who works as a town planner, is a lifelong friend of her brother Prince Akishino. Under Japanese law, Sayako will lose her royal status as soon as she weds, because her fiancé is a commoner. There is widespread speculation the rules may be changed, though, because all eight children born into the Imperial Family since Sayako have been girls causing concern over the future of the Chrysanthemum Throne. |
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