Husband of Japan’s former Princess Mako passes NY bar exam — on third try
Passing the bar’s been a royal pain for this new lawyer.
The commoner husband of a former Japanese princess who lives in New York City has finally passed the state test to become a lawyer — on his third try.
Kei Komuro, 31 — who married Princess Mako last year — had to retake the state bar exam this past July after he failed on two prior attempts.
“I’m really happy. Thank you very much,” he reportedly said after getting congratulations from lawyer Okuno Yoshihiko, his old boss at a Japanese law firm, who confirmed the news to NHK.
Yoshihiko said he received a call from Komuro on Friday about passing the bar.
“This time, he passed,” the Tokyo attorney said.
In the call, Komuro reportedly also promised to “study harder as a lawyer.”
The New York State Board of Law Examiners said about 9,609 people sat for the bar exam this July — and 66 percent of them passed.
The success rate for repeat takers like Komuro is 23 percent.
Komuro graduated from Fordham University’s law school in May 2021 and has since been working as a law clerk at a legal firm in New York.
He and Mako, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, have been living in New York ever since getting married last October. Because he was a commoner, she was forced to drop her royal title and no longer be part of public activities of the imperial family.
A senior official of the Imperial Household Agency expressed relief over Komuro finally passing the exam.
“It’s good to hear. It is reassuring to see the foundations for [the couple’s] future finally falling into place,” the source said to the Japanese newspaper the Mainichi.
The couple has been financially independent after Mako turned down a $1.23 million payment that she was entitled to upon leaving the royal family.
Mako has since started a new gig at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she is helping curators as a volunteer in the Met’s Asian art collection inspired by the life of a 13th-century monk who introduced Buddhism to the island nation.
Before moving to the US, Mako graduated with a degree in art and cultural heritage from International Christian University in Tokyo.
