Crown Princess Kiko, on the occasion of her 55th birthday on Saturday, said she wants to "respect as much as possible" the feelings of her eldest daughter, Princess Mako, whose marriage has been postponed for nearly three years following reports of a money dispute involving her boyfriend's mother.
"There are things that we agree and disagree on, but we want to tell each other what we think is necessary, and I would like to respect my eldest daughter's feelings as much as possible," the crown princess said in a statement released by the Imperial Household Agency.
Princess Mako and her commoner boyfriend, Kei Komuro, both 29, are looking to register their marriage in October and start a new life in the United States, where Komuro currently resides and is expected to start working at a law firm, a government source has said.