Prince Akishino of Japan has some choice words about the media coverage of his daughter Mako and her wedding. The former Japanese princess, now a commoner and a New Yorker, was subject to intense and unflattering media scrutiny, and her dad is not pleased—not with tabloids, not with online commenters, and not with the Imperial Household Agency which handles many aspects of the royal family’s lives. “There are people who are deeply hurt by this slander,” Akishino said in a press conference for his 56th birthday, Reuters reports. One of those people is Mako, who postponed her wedding for years after a financial dispute in her now-husband’s family erupted into a national scandal—and she was diagnosed with PTSD during the wait.
Akishino acknowledged that not all press is bad press, but lashed out at “fabrications,” the Washington Post reports. The IHA handles the press for the royal family, and the tone it sets is usually stoic and not candid. "I don’t think the Imperial Household Agency had any strategy" for discussing Mako’s engagement, Yohei Mori, a professor at Seijo University in Tokyo told Japan Times. And that’s a problem, as far as Akishino is concerned, saying that when arguments exceed a certain limit, it’s time to take action. "Negative coverage may continue, so I think it is necessary to consider setting such standards in consultation with the IHA," he said in his unusually candid remarks. (More Princess Mako stories.)
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