Full Text of Komuro's 28-page document #1
Note: In the original text, footnotes are grouped together at the end of the text, but here, for the convenience of the reader, the footnotes for the relevant sections are placed at the end of the divided text.
Document Summary
This document
is written by me, Kei Komuro, regarding the alleged financial troubles between
my mother and my mother's former fiancé (hereinafter referred to as "the
former fiancé"). The content of the document is divided into the main text
and footnotes. The main text is divided into items from "1" to
"8," followed by a collection of footnotes to supplement the contents
of the main text, etc. ([Note 1] to [Note 36]). When a specific part of a
document is cited or referred to in another part of the document, an "item
number" is given for the main text, and an endnote number is given for the
footnotes.
Although we have tried to limit the content to what we think is
necessary and possible, the overall volume and amount of information is still
not small. Therefore, we thought it would be better to have an outline of the
document to make it easier to read. The following is a rough outline of the
contents of each item, but it is not enough to fully understand the contents of
this document, so please read the entire document, including the text and
footnotes, considering the outline as only an introduction to this document.
1.
Introduction
My
marriage to Her Imperial Highness Princess Mako has been postponed since the
announcement of the postponement of marriage ceremonies and other events on
February 7, 2018, but as stated in the document written by Her Imperial
Highness Princess Mako and released on November 13, 2020, my feelings and
thoughts about our marriage remain unchanged. There is no change. However, we
have not touched on any specific matters related to our marriage in this
document. I would like to inform you of this in advance.
For a
long time after January 22, 2019, I have done very little in the way of
publicly announcing anything. Partly because of this, I have been unable to see
how the matter of the alleged financial troubles between my mother and her
former fiancé is going.
The
purpose of this document is to correct, to the extent possible, the erroneous
information that has been circulating in the world about the alleged financial
troubles by clarifying to some extent the actual history of the exchanges that
have taken place between me, my mother and my ex-fiancee [Note 1]. Corrections
to the erroneous information that has been circulated are made throughout the
document, sometimes in the text, sometimes in footnotes.
I know
that my silence has made some people distrustful of me and my mother, but I
hope that by reading this document, even one person will be able to understand
what has been going on.
2. The
reason why we decided to create and publish this document
First of
all, I would like to explain the reason why we decided to create and publish
this document. As I will explain in detail in "6" below, my mother
has been in discussions with her former fiancé from May of 2019 to November of
2020, through her attorney, Mr. Kamishiba.
Up until now, I have neither actively denied nor actively
refuted the false information that has been circulating in the world. With a
few exceptions, [Note 2] the reason why my mother and I have avoided disclosing
our perceptions of the alleged financial troubles to the public is because we
thought that it might expose the privacy of my ex-fiancee more than necessary.
In addition, I wanted to have a proper discussion with my ex-fiancee about our
perceptions and gain her understanding before resolving the issue. I thought
that if I were to actively communicate my and my mother's perceptions, it would
defeat the original purpose of having a discussion between the parties
involved. I was also concerned about the possibility that my mother and her
ex-fiancee might be misunderstood as if they were at odds with each other
without any discussion. For these reasons, I decided that it was better to keep
silent as much as possible in order to facilitate the discussion.
There
were two main reasons that led to our decision to correct the false information
about the alleged financial troubles. The first was what His Imperial Highness
Prince Akishino said at the press conference on the occasion of his birthday on
November 30, 2020 [Note 3]. Second, on November 30 of the same year, an article
was published in the Shukan Gendai (hereafter referred to as the "Shukan
Gendai article") in which the former fiancée is said to have given an
exclusive interview. As mentioned above, my mother has been continuing
discussions with her ex-fiancee since May of 2019, but since the article was
based on the ex-fiancee's one-sided story even though the discussions were not
yet finished, and since many of the contents were unfortunately not true, she
decided to continue the discussions peacefully without any denial or
refutation. In addition, many of the contents of the article were unfortunately
untrue. Therefore, we have decided that it is difficult to continue the
discussion peacefully without any denial or refutation.
For the
above reasons, we have decided to publish this document.
3. Basic
Policy
Before
explaining the past interactions between my mother and I and my ex-fiancee, I
would like to explain how my mother and I have basically dealt with what is
known as financial problems. Since a certain point in time, we have
consistently prioritized the issue of how to properly discuss with my
ex-fiancee and resolve the issue with his understanding.
On December 12, 2017, the first news report about the alleged
financial trouble came out, and as the news reports continued to heat up, my
mother and I decided that we should consult with various people before deciding
how to handle the situation, rather than acting on our own. We decided to consult
with various people before making a decision. As part of this process, we
consulted with several lawyers. The common advice I received from all the
lawyers was that I should not react and should do nothing, and that it would be
difficult to solve the problem through discussion anyway [Note 4]. Some of the
reasons for such advice were that the ex-fiancee might not be in a position to
have a calm discussion with her, judging from what was being reported and how
heated the reports were, and that the ex-fiancee's goal might not be money.
These
pieces of advice overlapped with what my mother and I felt when we watched the
news reports. The first thing that my mother and I felt when we saw the news
reports was that we did not understand the true intentions of the ex-fiancee.
It is true that we have seen reports that the ex-fiancee only wanted to get her
money back, or that she only wanted to thank us because she didn't like the
fact that we didn't say thank you. I couldn't take what was being reported at
face value. Furthermore, my mother and I were horrified to see the untrue and
insulting content of the episode, which was not necessary if we only wanted to
mention the support. The fact that you attacked us so much made us think that
you had more in mind than what you really meant (of course, this is just how my
mother and I felt). However, if I did nothing and did not discuss the matter,
there was a risk that my relationship with my ex-fiancee would worsen and the
press would become more heated. So, in order to solve the problem as soon as
possible, I thought I would have to accept the reported intentions of the
ex-fiancee as they were and think about how to respond. My ex-fiancee is a
person with whom I have a good relationship and who provided support to my mother
and me for a while (I will explain in detail in "5" (1) and (2)), and
at the time I was grateful for the support, but looking back now, I think that
I relied too much on the good intentions of my ex-fiancee. But now, looking
back, I think I relied too much on the good intentions of my ex-fiancee.
Considering this, I had some thoughts about the fact that the news reports were
not true, but I thought that it would be better if we could settle the case by
giving her the settlement money.
I asked several lawyers again for their opinions on this
idea, and they advised me that even if I gave the money as a settlement, it
would be misunderstood as a repayment of the debt, and the public would still
see it as a debt, but would I be okay with that? I don't mind. Looking at the
way it was reported in the media, it seemed that there was a high possibility
that if we gave the money, it would be seen as a debt. Some people may say that
it is too much to think that if I handed over the money, it would be misunderstood
as a repayment of a debt, or that the public would see it as a debt. But
looking at the news reports at the time, I didn't think so at all. Thus, we
decided not to give the money to them without any discussion.
I
understand that there have been some people who have asked why we didn't just
give them the money in a lump sum, whether it was borrowed or not. Even if what
the ex-fiancee says is not true, if he is grateful for the support, he should
give the money. Still, I did not do so because I thought that no matter what
the reason, I could not accept a situation in which what was not a debt was
made to be a debt in exchange for early resolution. If it was made out to be a
debt, it would mean that my ex-fiancee was right and that my mother and I were
the ones who were trying to get out of debt. This means that in the future, my
family will continue to be seen as the family of the person who tried to get
out of debt. I didn't think that it was inevitable. It is commonly called
financial trouble, but it was also a matter of sincere honor, and even now, I
take it the same way.
Having
said that, looking at the situation in the press that has continued to the
present, many people may think that it would have been better to give money and
pretend that it was a debt. However, if you are suspected of being dishonorable
and you want to get out of a painful situation as soon as possible, even though
the suspicion is not true, it is no different from admitting something that is
not true as a fact. I did a lot of worrying, but I couldn't make a choice that
I might regret for the rest of my life. Some people may not understand this way
of thinking, but it was a decision I made after considering all possibilities.
Through
this process, we decided that it was the best option [Note 5] to try this even
if it was difficult to resolve the issue through discussion, and we decided to
properly discuss with the ex-fiancee about our mutual understanding, and to
think about how to resolve the issue with his understanding.
We have
not proposed a settlement fee to the ex-fiancee so far. It is not a real
solution to end the discussion using the settlement money as a material without
having a proper discussion, and if it is not a real solution, even if we give
the settlement money, we cannot deny the possibility that it was a debt. We
have discussed this issue with my mother and her representative from time to
time, considering the possibility of proposing it as one of the solutions if we
could both agree on the differences in our perceptions of the past, but in the
end we have not been able to reach such a proposal due to the lack of progress
in the discussion with my ex-fiancee (see "6" below for details).
However, we have not been able to come up with such a proposal because of the
lack of progress in discussions with my ex-fiancee (explained in detail in
"6" below).
The following are annotations
Note 1.
Of
course, it is impossible to cover all of the false information, given the
number of cases. In addition, even though it is unavoidable under the
circumstances, it cannot be denied that there is a legal problem in revealing
the past communication between my mother and me and my ex-fiancee without her
permission. It is necessary to give as much consideration as possible to the privacy
of the ex-fiancee. For this reason, we have to limit what we can reveal to what
we think is possible and necessary. In this document, we have tried to select
some of the most important issues, and at the same time, we have mentioned some
of the things that we think are necessary for a more accurate understanding of
the issues.
In this
document, we also refer to the reported statements of the ex-fiancee, and as
mentioned in "6" (3) below, the ex-fiancee made a statement to the
effect that it seems that things that she never said are being written about
her in the press. I would like to point out in advance that my mother and I do
not know whether the contents of the news reports are really the statements of
my ex-fiancee or not. In addition, there are some things in this document that
I have not seen or heard firsthand, such as reports from my mother's attorney,
Ueshiba, but I have basically avoided hearsay expressions for the sake of
readability.
Note 2.
The first
exception is a document that I published on January 22, 2019. The second is a
document that was released on or after November 26, 2020, by my attorney, Mr.
Kamishiba (who has been in charge of discussions with my ex-fiancee as my
mother's attorney, and at the same time, has been responding to inquiries from
the press as my attorney since January 22, 2019). This is the first time that I
have been able to provide accurate information through a lawyer. When I was
asked if I borrowed money from my ex-fiancee to pay for my college tuition, I
replied that there was no such fact and that I paid for it with money I saved
from my part-time job and a scholarship. By the time I answered that question,
I had already talked with my ex-fiancee about the entrance fee and tuition, and
she had replied that it was a mistake on her part (more details will be
explained in "6" and "7" below). (For details, please refer
to "6" (7) below.
Note 3.
According
to the website of the Imperial Household Agency, at a press conference held on
November 30, His Imperial Highness Prince Akishino said, "You mentioned
earlier that you don't think this is a situation where many people will be
satisfied and happy, and for that reason, it is necessary to clear up and
resolve the issue that Your Imperial Highness pointed out before. In response
to the question, "What do you think now about the idea that it is
necessary to clear up and solve the problem that His Highness pointed out
before?", he replied, "As a precondition for a situation where many
people are satisfied and happy, I said that it is necessary to take appropriate
measures to clear up (solve) the problem that has existed up to now. I myself
don't know the details of this, since it's about someone's house, but I don't
think it's true to say that we haven't taken any action at all. Yes, I do. The
only thing I can say is that even if we are taking various measures, I think it
is necessary to make them visible.
Therefore, even if there is a concern as
mentioned in Note 1 of 1, I decided that I should make it "visible"
to a certain extent how my mother and I have dealt with the alleged financial
troubles. Because of this, I have tried to limit my explanation in this
document to the matters that are said to be financial troubles, and to correct
any erroneous information to the extent possible. In addition to the alleged
financial troubles, all sorts of false information has been circulating (not
only about the alleged financial troubles, but also about the contents of news
reports and commentaries), and I believe that many illegal acts have been
repeated, such as defamation, insult, and invasion of privacy against me and my
mother. I believe that many illegal acts have been repeated. If I start to
correct all of them, there is a risk that those that I fail to correct will be
assumed to be true, which is not realistic.
Note 4.
There is
audio data of the former fiancé's statement that he did not intend to ask for
the money back (for details, see "5" Note 14 below). (For details,
see Note 14 in "5" below.) This advice was given after having several
lawyers listen to it.
Note 5.
I wanted
to avoid confrontation with my ex-fiancee as much as possible, so I did not
choose to confront her. I did not choose to confront my ex-fiancé because I
wanted to avoid confrontation with him. Another major reason was that my
ex-fiancé is a person with whom I have a good relationship and who provided
support to my mother and me for a while (I will explain in detail in
"5" (1) and (2) below).
Full Text of Komuro's 28-page Document #1
Full Text of Komuro's 28-page Document #2
Full Text of Komuro's 28-page Document #3
Full Text of Komuro's 28-page Document #4
Summary of Mako&Komuro Problem
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