Kei Komuro, the husband of the former Princess Mako, has passed New York's state bar exam on his third try, a result that is sure to bring relief to a couple dogged by intense criticism and scrutiny from the Japanese public.
Komuro's name was on a list posted online of people who had passed the exam. He took the test in July.
"This time, I passed. I am now a member of the lawyers' community. I really owe this to you, and I will study harder as a lawyer," Komuro, who now works as a law clerk in New York, was quoted by NHK as telling his former boss. "I'm really happy. Thank you very much."
According to the New York State Board of Law Examiners, 9,609 candidates, including first-time and repeat takers, took the July test. Of those, 6,350 were successful, making the pass rate 66%, which is 3% higher than the overall pass rate for the July 2021 exam.
Komuro began working at a legal firm in New York after graduating from Fordham University's law school with a Juris Doctor degree in May 2021. He and Mako Komuro, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, moved to the U.S. after tying the knot last October.
The couple married amid public controversy over a financial dispute involving Kei Komuro's mother and her former fiance.
In an unprecedented step for an imperial marriage, Mako skipped the traditional rites and declined a lump-sum payment of about ¥150 million ($998,000 at current exchange rates) in taxpayer money amid the unease over the financial dispute.
The 1947 Imperial Household Law, which limits heirs to the imperial throne to males with an emperor in the paternal line, requires female royals to give up their status when they marry commoners.