IHA Simulates Another Rejection of Kei Komuro?
Kei Komuro, the husband of former Princess
Mako, the eldest daughter of the Akishino family, will re-take the NY State Bar
Exam on February 22 and 23. He failed to pass the bar exam immediately after graduation
from Fordham University School of Law in July last time, and this time he will
try for the second time while working as a "law clerk" at a law firm.
The Imperial Household Agency, the
government agency with jurisdiction over Japan's Imperial Family, is watching
the results closely. The Daily Shincho reported on February 7 that the
likelihood of her passing the exam is not very high in their eyes and that they
are simulating the possibility of her failing the exam.
According to the story,
The bar examinations in New York State are
usually held in February and July, and the passing rate for the July 2021
examination, which Kei took, was about 63%, while that for the February 2021
examination about 49%.
If you complete law school in May, you can
concentrate on your studies for two months before the July exam, but if you
take the exam in February, you will most likely have to take the exam while
working at your place of employment, which will lower the pass rate.
According to the article,
“The results were so unexpected that there
was an uproar in IHA. ‘I can't say that this was a condition for Prince
Akishino to approve their marriage, but I'm sure that Kei told him that passing
the bar exam was a sure thing for the foundation of his life and blueprint for
his future,’ said a person from IHA. That's why Prince Akishino might be so
shocked.”
The agency is running a number of
simulations in case the results are not satisfactory, according to the story.
“It seems that people in IHA are
"interviewing" to find out how much chance there is of passing. For
example, if there are grades from A to E, (omitted) I heard the loudest voice
pointing out that at the moment, ‘It's more like a C grade, closer to D.’”
If it is a "C" grade, closer to a
"D," then the situation is very unpredictable.
“It seems that (the people at the Imperial
Household Agency) are thinking about ...... if things don't work out. They
simulate whether or not they will be laid off from their current employers and
have trouble making ends meet, whether or not they will be able to find new
employment in that case, and whether or not Mako will be the only one to return
to Japan. The fact that they are making such a move, even if it's under the
radar, has increased the interest of the media and others involved in Kei's
test.”
In the matter of Kei Komuro and Mako, the
public's scrutiny was focused on the laxity of IHA's ability to predict the
situation, including the fact that they originally did not conduct any
"physical examination" of Kei, and did not predict at all that he
would fail the examination in July.
This article has also attracted strong
critical comments such as:
“Mako and Kei, they are just ordinary
people, so IHA should not interfere with them after they blustered out and left.
They should stop using our tax to support them.”
“It cannot be justified for them to ask IHA
or the Foreign Ministry to guarantee their livelihood whereas they want to have
freedom as ordinary people.”
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