The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-27)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

— the worst ranking for a major

developed nation.

Mako has declined the

$1.35 million taxpayer gift in-

tended to soften the blow of

abdicating her title — becoming

the first in Japan’s royal family to

reject the payment. The couple

also announced that they would

pay for Tuesday’s news confer-

ence.

The couple now plans to move

to the United States and may live

in New York, where Komuro

practices law. The former prin-

cess is a certified art curator and

holds a master’s degree in art

museum and gallery studies.

They declined to answer ques-

tions about their future. The

former princess said she hoped to

“have a warm household and live

peacefully.”

m [email protected]

NICOLAS DATICHE/POOL/REUTERS

Japan’s former princess Mako and her husband, Kei Komuro,

appear at a n ews conference Tuesday to announce their marriage.

BY MICHELLE YE HEE LEE

AND JULIA MIO INUMA

tokyo — When Japanese Prin-
cess Mako announced her en-
gagement to college sweetheart
Kei Komuro at a 2 017 news con-
ference, the couple giggled as
they recounted the story of how
they fell in love.
On Tuesday, at their first pub-
lic appearance since, the couple
sat at arm’s length and somberly
read a joint statement explaining
why they had registered their
marriage earlier in the day. It was
a stark reminder of how much
public sentiment has soured over
the past four years.
Although their engagement
was initially celebrated in Japan,
it quickly became divisive when
news surfaced about a financial
dispute involving Komuro’s
mother. Despite it all, the couple
stood firm, glancing knowingly
at each other Tuesday as they
addressed the public following
disparagement ranging from
questioning of their integrity to
complaints about Komuro’s

looks.

“Kei is an irreplaceable person

for me. And for the two of us,

marriage was a necessary deci-

sion in our lives to protect our

hearts,” Mako said.

“I love Mako,” Komuro said. “I

would like to spend my one and

only life with the person I l ove.”

To marry a commoner, the

princess was required to abdicate

her royal status. Addressing the

public as Mako Komuro, rather

than Princess Mako, she apolo-

gized to those who disagreed

with their nuptials and thanked

those who supported them.

She also expressed apprecia-

tion for her now-husband and the

public criticism he has faced — a

rare expression of private feel-

ings about the public perception

of a member of the royal family,

experts said.

“I am thankful that despite

harsh public criticism, Kei con-

tinued to hold on to his feelings

to marry me. If he had given up

on the marriage, he wouldn’t

have had to face years of relent-

less hate,” she said.

The couple, both 30, have

faced a t orrent of criticism online

depicting Komuro as unfit for the

princess. Protesters gathered to

oppose their marriage, including

on their wedding day. Mako has

been experiencing symptoms of

post-traumatic stress disorder in

the face of the public rancor,

according to her doctor.

In the end, there was no ex-

travagant wedding ceremony. A

staff member of the Imperial

Housing Agency submitted their

paperwork at the registry office.

As Mako left her family estate in

Akasaka, a district of Tokyo,

Mako bowed to her parents and

her sister, Princess Kako, who

gave her a big hug.

The couple’s plight has drawn

attention to the Japanese imperi-

al family’s succession crisis and

the laws that alienate its female

members.

Women have no path to the

throne, and they are barred from

marrying outside the royal fam-

ily. Men are not subject to this

restriction. The women who exit

the family cannot return, even if

they get a divorce, and their male

children lose their chance at

reigning. There is now just one

heir to the throne, Prince Hisahi-

to, who is Mako’s brother.

“Criticism has always been

centered on women imperial

fam ily members who don’t even

have the right to succession,” said

Hideya Kawanishi, an associate

professor at Nagoya University

who specializes in Japanese his-

tory and the imperial family sys-

tem. “Unfortunately, I think

there is a certain misogynistic

aspect to the Japanese imperial

family.”

Japanese society in general has

been characterized by a high

degree of discrimination against

women, with the World Eco-

nomic Forum putting it 120 out of

156 countries for gender equality

Japanese princess marries commoner

Couple faced 4 years of

criticism, and Mako had

to cede her royal status

BY DAN LAMOTHE

The United States has “few
credible options” to respond if
China were to seize a set of islands
administered by Taiwan in the
South China Sea, underscoring
the need for Washington and
Taipei to build deterrence “against
limited Chinese aggression,” ac-
cording to the results of a war
game conducted recently by for-
eign policy experts in Washington
and the Asia-Pacific region.
The scenario was examined by
the Center for a New American
Security, a Washington-based
think tank, and detailed in a re-
port published Tuesday. It suppos-
es that Chinese forces invade the
Pratas islands, capturing the 500
Taiwanese troops who are based
there and establishing a military
outpost.
It’s a t heoretical dilemma for
the Pentagon that “many China-
watchers view as increasingly
plausible” — and one that “re-
inforces the need for regular plan-

ning exercises between Taiwanese

and U.S. personnel,” the report

says.

The report comes at a m oment

of heightened tension between

Washington and Beijing, with the

United States opposing China’s

military expansion in the region

and China calling on the Pentagon

to cut ties with Taiwan. The stand-

off has spotlighted the challenge

U.S. commanders would face in

responding to an incursion of the

islands without provoking a full-

blown war.

President Biden, speaking dur-

ing a town hall event last week

broadcast by CNN, said that “we

have a commitment” to defend

Taiwan, prompting the White

House to issue a statement clarify-

ing that “the U.S. defense relation-

ship with Taiwan is guided by the

Taiwan Relations Act.” Signed into

law in 1979, it details an ambigu-

ous policy in which the United

States said it would be a m atter of

“grave concern” if Taiwan’s future

was determined by “other than

peaceful means.” It also promises

to provide the island with defen-

sive weapons, and states that it

will maintain capacity to “resist

any resort to force or forms of

coercion” that would jeopardize

security on Taiwan.

China for years has b een build-

ing bases on contested islands in

the South China Sea and more

recently boosting military flights

into Taiwan’s air defense identifi-

cation zone. The move, analysts

say, is meant to burn out Taiwan ’s

military, which has been forced to

scramble jets in response.

The rift between China and Tai-

wan dates back decades. Commu-

nists won a c ivil war in China in

1949, forcing their opponents to

flee to Taiwan. Beijing has claimed

the island as its own territory ever

since.

Chris Dougherty, a senior fel-

low at the Center for a N ew Ameri-

can Security, said U.S. of ficials

have scrutinized what a full Chi-

nese invasion of Taiwan might

look like. For this exercise, he and

his colleagues wanted to examine

a scenario that was on a magni-

tude similar to Russia’s invasion

and annexation of Ukraine’s

Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Dougherty, a former Army

Ranger who served as a strategic

adviser in the Pentagon for four

years spanning the Obama and

Trump administrations, said that

seizing the land — also known as

the Dongsha islands — would al-

low China to gauge the reaction of

the international communit y. Chi-

na’s status as an economic power,

he said, makes it difficult for the

United States to sanction Beijing

on an open-ended basis.

“You either can play the game of

the chicken and you can say, ‘I’m

willing to get into a contest of

risk-taking with you over Dong-

sha,’ which — l et’s be honest — I

don’t know that we are. Or, you can

do this pillow-fighting policy, and

you’re going to hit them, but not

hard enough to deter them from

doing what you want them to do,”

Dougherty said.

The war game found that the

best option was warning the Chi-

nese ahead of time of consequenc-

es they would face for moving on

the islands, with Japan playing a

significant role, the report says.

“The U.S. and Taiwan teams

made repeated inquiries about Ja-

pan’s position, suggesting that

without Japan’s backing, the U.S.

and Taiwanese negotiating posi-

tion was weakened,” the report

said. “In a potential conflict, a l ack

of unambiguous Japanese sup-

port for Taiwan in this context

would undermine efforts to urge

Chinese withdrawal and could set

a precedent for future unchecked

Chinese aggression in other terri-

torial disputes, including those

over Japanese territory, such as

the Senkaku Islands.”

Asked about Biden’s remarks

last week, Defense Secretary Lloyd

Austin said, “Nobody wants to see

cross-strait issues come to blows.”

“As we ’ve done over multiple

administrations, we’ll continue to

help Taiwan with the sorts of capa-

bilities that it needs to defend

itself, and so we’ll stay focused on

those things,” Austin said.

[email protected]

Karoun Demirjian contributed to this

report.

U.S. has few options i f China were to seize islands administered by Taiwan

War game’s results show

challenge in responding

without risking feud

It’s a theoretical

dilemma for the

Pentagon that “many

China-watchers view as

increasingly plausible.”

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