Japan’s Princess Mako is truly out of the Japanese royal family for good. Mako married Kei Komuro last October and soon after, they moved to New York full-time. She gave up all of her royal status and she refused to take a $1.3 million payout for leaving the royal family. Kei works at a law firm and he’s pretty comfortable in America, having gone to law school here and having lived here, on and off, for many years. After the wedding, Mako was seen around New York, shopping for home essentials and generally being low-key. Now she’s reportedly gotten a job! An unpaid job, so this is basically an internship.
Japan’s former Princess Mako has a new title to add to her resumé. Mako Komuro, who married her college boyfriend and moved to New York City last fall, is now reportedly assisting curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Because the law in Japan requires a princess to “leave the imperial family upon marriage to a commoner,” Princess Mako gave up her royal titles to marry Komuro. She also turned down a $1.3 million payout from the Japanese government that is traditionally paid to royal women who lose their royal status when they marry.
According to the Japan Times, Mako is serving as an unpaid volunteer at the Met. The 30-year old is working within the museum’s Asian art collection and has specifically been involved in preparing an exhibition of paintings inspired by the life of a 13th-century monk who traveled throughout Japan as he introduced Buddhism.
Mako is well-qualified for the job, having graduated from International Christian University (where she met her future husband Kei Komoro) with a degree in art and cultural heritage. She also studied art history at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh before receiving her master’s in Art Museum and Gallery Studies in 2016 at the University of Leicester. While still performing royal duties, she then worked as a special researcher at Tokyo’s University Museum.
A former curator at the Met tells PEOPLE, “She’s qualified and probably handling pieces in the collection. In general, it’s work which requires a great deal of preparation and often means spending a lot of time in the library.”
It kind of pisses me off that she’s doing an unpaid job for a museum? She’s qualified for a paid position! I’m sure Kei wants to support her financially, but Mako is in America now, land of two-income households! New York is expensive, a second income would absolutely help out. Maybe Mako was promised that the unpaid position could lead to a paid position. Or maybe she’s just keeping busy before they start a family. I don’t know and it’s none of my business, but I do hope that Mako gets paid at some point!
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
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- SÃO PAULO, SP – 22.07.2018: PRINCESA MAKO VISITA JAPAN HOUSE – Princess Mako, 26, the eldest granddaughter of Japan's Emperor Akihito, who is in Sao Paulo for the 110th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Brazil, visits Japan House on Sunday morning (22). (Photo: Aloisio Mauricio/Fotoarena),Image: 515676246, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Aloisio Mauricio / Fotoarena / Avalon
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- SÃO PAULO, SP – 22.07.2018: PRINCESA MAKO VISITA JAPAN HOUSE – Princess Mako, 26, the eldest granddaughter of Japan's Emr Akr Akihito, who is in Sao Paulo for the 110th anniversary of Japanese immigra to Brazil, visits Japan Hou House on Sunday morning (22). (Photo: Aloisio Mauricio/Fotoarena),Image: 515676249, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Aloisio Mauricio / Fotoarena / Avalon
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- SÃO PAULO, SP – 22.07.2018: PRINCESA MAKO VISITA JAPAN HOUSE – Princess Mako, 26, the eldest granddaughter of Japan's Emr Akr Akihito, who is in Sao Paulo for the 110th anniversary of Japanese immigra to Brazil, visits Japan Hou House on Sunday morning (22). (Photo: Aloisio Mauricio/Fotoarena),Image: 515676259, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Aloisio Mauricio / Fotoarena / Avalon
Unpaid internships should be illegal
Absolutely. It’s still labor, even if it’s being done by someone who’s not fully qualified.
Agreed 100000000 times over! When people offered to work for my law firm for free as unpaid interns, I still paid them at least $10 an hour. I could not accept free work. That’s wrong on all levels.
Yep, completely agree. I read an article once about how Conde Nast interns were working 10-12 hours whilst having to go to food banks to live. Absolutely disgusting. These companies can and should pay for labor.
100000% agree.
Agreed.
X100000!! Does the Met not have funds for an entry level salary? Is it struggling financially? But this is being classified as a volunteer position not an internship which is worse because it suggests it’s not even a stepping stone to a real job.
They have a magnificent amount of money. They could pay her and all of their employees a better wage.
Too true. They are benefiting not only from her labour but her status and she gets what? Thanks?
Right? Especially since she seems supremely qualified to take on a paid position.
Agreed. Businesses have been getting away with this for far too long just because interns traditionally are all seen as “rich trust fund kids who don’t need the money.”
And the converse is that the only people who can afford to take those “opportunities” (because they can and do lead to paid positions) ARE “trust fund babies” who then get an additional leg up on their less privileged contemporaries who have to take paying jobs so they can afford to live. It’s gross all the way around.
Should an arts institution like the Met have to pay a princess to work there?
No
Should she get a job on her own merit like a commoner and be paid for her labors?
Yes of course….maybe she should look for paid work managing a private art collection but no I don’t think the Met (an institution that gives many people who just want to be there and of help positions). Not sure if the public is aware of how many people at the met are unpaid “docents”….arts institutions like the Met don’t have extra money to spend on hiring princesses that have lost their inheritance….get a grip people.
I think most of us are just upset about the idea of many profitable institutions using the labour of unpaid interns, not so much about her status. I mentioned her status because it is likely to be a big draw used by the Met, but my overall concern was with unpaid internship in general.
I think that argument works for things like a local historical society or a smaller-scale museum. I waitressed while interning and it was horrible but I understood because the museums and galleries where I interned were not high profile by any means. But I think a place like the Met absolutely does have the resources to at least pay someone an entry-level salary.
The Met has a fairly large paid internship program, but it’s all for students (Kiddo applied, but didn’t get it). One of the requirements to apply for one of their internships is that you be an enrolled student (or in the summer between high school & college/college & grad school). The program for NYC high school kids pays NYC minimum wage ($15/hour). I don’t know what the college/graduate program pays.
The unpaid positions at the Met (tour guides, information desk, etc.) are strictly volunteer and mostly retirees. I’m sort of surprised that a curatorial department is taking on a volunteer, although if she’s in the US on a spouse’s visa, I don’t think she can take paid work.
I was thinking that perhaps she may not have wanted a paying job, knowing full well that although qualified, she might be taking a job that could well go to someone equally qualified, albeit non-princess, person.
She may not have the right visa to accept paid employment.
Those Met docent jobs are not easy to get. And they’re serious about their training. It’s not just “rich lady” volunteer work-the people I know who volunteer there have art degrees and are very knowledgeable about art.
Mary – That makes it worse. Someone has to be well qualified and independently wealthy to get one of those positions. I’ve been studying this a lot in my management training but practices such as these – even if not deliberately racist – are counter to practices of anti-racism by upholding elitist systems. They’re also of course boldly classicist and sexist. How many men do we see working in skilled positions for no money?
Unpaid internships keep poor people out of the job market. You have to be independently wealthy to “work” full time without pay, and still afford the rent wardrobe, entertaining/networking required, etc. It’s like that is Hollywood too (from friends in the industry). Totally agree that unpaid internships should be illegal.
Bettyrose- you are so right. I took Postgrad courses at London College of Fashion and some of my fellow students there had been Elle and Vogue interns for one or even two years unpaid. One Elle intern told me they started paying his tube fare after a year which was amazing to him. And yes, they were mostly girls and gay guys. I have a few friends who ended up at fashion mags and in the Conde Nast system and almost everyone came from money or it would not have been possible. When I moved into PR all the underpaid fashion journalists who were not „professional daughters“ would sell the designer loot they had scored on ebay etc. I moved into political work because I realized Arts and fashion was for wealthy offspring, POC were tokens, and I wanted to work for money, not for free or clothes.
Absolutely! I was poor and working my way through college. I couldn’t afford to take an unpaid internship.
Agreed.
Who can do them but people who are rich?
It stops other people from having opportunities.
Is it an internship or a rich lady docent kind of volunteer work?
I’m sure she’s actually working. These pieces are probably very valuable and if what the person interviewed stated is true then she is probably handling them – the museum is not going to let someone handle them who is just doing philanthropic volunteer docent work.
I have almost the exact educational qualifications as her (different universities but very similar) and am about her age and let me tell you it’s rough in the art/heritage world. Curator positions for anyone entering the workforce are almost non existent. Even landing an internship at a place like the Met would require all her connections. It’s horrible. I had to find another field of work, I was an unpaid intern for two years at a museum and they wouldn’t even hire me as an administrative assistant when I applied after all that time. I hope this one works out for her!
Sorry to hear that happened to you.
I hope you got a great job now
Aww thank you! Yes, it’s much more stable and better-paying than if I had stayed in that field!
She just recently married him, and there may be visa and immigration issues to sort out before she can take a paid position. I’m sure many museums would love to have someone as well educated as her, and of her stature, on their staff.
I’m happy to be corrected about this but generally if you have an employer who will sponsor you, you can take the paid position once you have a visa. I would imagine she would have been able to expedite that process if she chose. So I think that that may not be the issue.
I’ve known a number of people in the US on Spouse’s visas (parent’s of Kiddo’s school friends). It’s almost impossible to get permission to work if that’s your visa status. The only one I knew who was able to do anything was an author whose books were best-sellers in her native Mexico and were also published in the US. Everyone else was stuck waiting and unemployed until they were able to get a Green Card.
Yeah, that would make sense then, given the other circumstances.
Agreed. I’m inclined to believe she needs to straighten out her work visa issues before she can legally get a paying job. Maybe she’s going about it the regular person way and not using any of her Princess juice to speed up the process.
And maybe the Met is testing her out before hiring her.
There is no “princess juice” to speed up this process. She is just a regular person now, probably on an H4, with no one attempting to pull strings for her.
She for sure has visa restrictions right now. I’m an American, and when my husband and I lived abroad with his job, I was the “accompanying spouse.” My visa explicitly said “not permitted to work.” It’s a huge hassle getting that changed where we lived, and it’s also a big process here in the States.
Maybe she’s volunteering for now and will be able to work for pay once her visa status changes.
I read this story yesterday and my first reaction was Whaaaat? She should definitely be paid working for such a prestigious organization. And l just saw your comment, Izzy, l hope this is the reason and it leads to a salaried position shortly.
I work at a national museum – we don’t just have gobs of money to hire people, even if they are qualified, there may not be a job opening. We get many people who volunteer, often to help build up their CVs and we often hire our volunteers when jobs they are qualified for come up and they apply for them. But the job market in museums is tough – lots of insanely qualified people applying for not many jobs.
This is so true. In this field, demand is very high and job supply is limited. And she’s limited to NYC, which has great museums, but she can’t move to another US city — many of which have excellent Asian art collections. She’s probably being very strategic in how she builds experience and credibility within the fine art world.
Why did she turn down the $1.3m?
Probably for the same reasons Harry and Meghan paid back the costs of refurbishing Frogmore. People have been giving her so much crap over all of this.
Heck, she gets enough publicity garbage while living her life independently. The tabloids would go into overdrive over her “taking public money.”
I actually think more of her for refusing to take public funds when she isn’t in real need the way so many are. (Japan’s poverty rate was around 16% in 2020 and has been increasing.) Good for her for making her own way in the world and not being a parasite or grifter like so many royals. Her husband’s mother was involved in a financial scandal so she probably didn’t want to fuel the flames.
There was also some controversy over Kei’s mother owing an ex BF a large sum of money, further adding to the public unpopularity over the marriage. So that may have been another reason why Mako refused the royal payout.
The ex gave Kei’s mother that money while they were dating. It was a gift. She used it to pay for her son’s education (Kei). Only after Kei and Mako became engaged, did the ex, start saying it was a loan his mother had never paid back. Kei has said he will pay back all the money. But the Japanese press and public have given Mako, Kei, and his mother, a lot of hell about this.
Yes, thanks for the further clarification, it caused a lot of uproar that Kei was cashing in on his royal connections. No doubt another reason Mako refused the money to nip that in the bud.
I’d be surprised if she doesn’t end up with a paid position at the Met. Good for her at least getting some work experience. If she doesn’t get a job there, she will get one at another museum.
Who cares if she is unpaid or not? Let’s face it she will have lots of opportunities to get paid by virtue of her family name. Feel badly for the average person who cannot afford to take the internship cause they need to be paid to survive.
I want this for Eugenie. I could see her and Jack move to the US and do something like this
She did this already. She used to work for an Art gallery or auction house in NY a few years ago.
Exactly what Kate could have/should have done with her Art History degree. If she truly (I know, I know) didn’t want to trade on being the GF of Prince William by getting a real job, she could have/should have at least volunteered in one of the many great museums/art galleries/auction houses in London. But even being a volunteer is work & requires commitment, and brains, and we now know she’s sorely lacking in both.
I see it less as an unpaid internship and more as a rich lady doing charity work for free. If they hired her, it would mean that someone else, who was probably even more qualified would not have gotten a job and those kind of jobs are very rare and her getting it over at least as qualified commoners would not sound good. Also, she might enjoy the freedom not having a proper job and being able to take off work, for example if she wants to go visit her family or if they visit her.
I think there won’t be any visiting any time soon, except for maybe Mako’s sister, who has been openly supportive of her. Her marriage caused such a sh*tstorm by the Japanese press that even if her parents are privately supportive, I think it’s unlikely that they will be coming to the US any time soon. And I think it will be several years before she goes back to Japan, even very privately.
Sometimes internship hours are required for certain certificates/diplomas- so then they can be unpaid. However I did work as a “volunteer” after school because unpaid internships are illegal in BC- but they do don’t want to pay me and I needed more on my resume. Yes they treated me like shit.
I don’t think the Met would make a well qualified, sympathetic former princess take on an unpaid internship like the rest of us plebs in this capitalist dystopia. Lots of rich people do volunteer to work at museums. Maybe she wants to transition to a career or not- she may be working there on a volunteer basis because of visa issues or just because she doesn’t plan to be working there long if she’s planning on being a SAHM soon. We don’t know, but I don’t think they’re hurting for money.
My question is has Kei passed the New York Bar yet? Because last I read he hadn’t. Don’t mean to insult him- it’s the most difficult state bar in the country, and he has to pass it in a second language. But I feel like they’ll be in much better shape if he has.
I really wish them well. Hopefully they will be successful and away from the money bags that dictate their lives if accepted.
With Mako being who she is, this is a huge get for the Met. They have PR people too, and they’re no fools. Look at all the coverage it’s getting today!
The most famous Japanese woman right now, who also happens to be extremely qualified/educated, makes perfect sense for their Asian art collection. They benefit from this “hire” every bit as much as she does.
Oh, yeah, this is the same museum that hired Caroline Kennedy; they got a lot of PR out of that.
I’m not sure if most people realize but most museum jobs pay nothing. Last I heard the Met was in TONS of debt, it’s one of the reasons they did away with “pay what you wish” admission a few years ago. Only residents from NY, CT, and NJ can pay what they wish now from what I remember, including all college students. It was suuuper controversial when they got rid of “pay what you wish” but one of the reasons was probably their debt.
My sister just interviewed at the Met last week for a PR/comms job, I know that sounds super prestigious. She’s worked hard to get where she is, she also interviewed at two other pretty well-known NYC institutions. But my sister isn’t all that interested since she realized the people she could be replacing had actually retired from the role (she is only in her early 30s) and she is kinda freaked out by the prospect of being in the same role for 20 years with no upward mobility. Millennials don’t do that sort of thing. I believe the position she interviewed for is an increase in salary from where she is now (another NYC museum but on the smaller side) but yeah, the Met isn’t all it’s cracked up to be to work at.
So even if Mako got an entry level salary, it would probably be around $38-40k. She has her husband so she’ll be ok but the average person can’t live on that to survive.
All of what you say is true, except for the heads of these museums who even in my nondescript area make six figures. It’s sad.
Wow! Only 38 to 40k to work at the Met?! Yeah I would turn that down. Here in Florida that would barely pay the bills and this isn’t NY!
Yep, that’s what most staff jobs look like at NYC cultural institutions. And elsewhere. At least at the Met there are some union-represented positions and associated protections, but the leadership and the rich Trustees they serve do not want to pay staff a living wage. Still many people in line competing for the roles.
That’s pitiful. You’ll get a much better wage working for the feds, mostly at Smithsonian museums & NPS park units; those jobs also come with locality pay, so if in NYC or DC, it’s going to be even better.
I adore the MET collections but the last time my partner and I visited from Canada, upon leaving I turned around to take one last photo of the museum and a security guard list his shit on me telling me to delete my photo and when I asked him if I was breaking a rule he said ‘you’re done, get out’. I wrote an official letter of complaint to management because the incident reduced me to tears , it was unwarranted and completely out of line. The management said the incident would be investigated and the guard would have a talking to. I don’t know what happened but it left a very sour taste in my mouth. I have donated and spent quite a bit of money at the MET in their shop and that experience was just rotten.
They are lucky to have her and she definitely should get paid.
Wow, that’s terrible. I hope they followed through & looked into this, and either sent this guy to training or sent him packing.
Unpaid or not I am sure loads of people try to get internships at the Met, how come Princess Mako landed one?
Don’t blame Mako for how impossible it is to get paid in the arts. It’s a cut-throat nepotism nightmare.
Most non-profits don’t pay well, period. Hubby has moved back and forth between the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors for years. Non-profits just can’t compete on compensation – they can’t give equity. We take the years with NFPs as “do it for two years to wait out a non-compete” or “get the experience in this line of business to get to the next job.” At the very top levels, the senior execs at most non-profits could earn double or triple or more if they worked in the private sector. According to the 2020 990, the Chief Investment Officer at the Met made $1.3 million. She could have made at least 5 times that in the private sector.
To be honest, the Met has a savvy PR team, but its core business isn’t PR. Everyone in that department is going to have very limited upward mobility. People take a job like that at the Met for the stability.
She has a work visa for the States, she was living in an apartment in Shibuya waiting for it to come through before she moved to New York. The imperial women are not stupid and they’re aware that they will probably have to get a job in the future, she is qualified for this position. I’m sure she’d like it to be paid, hopefully she can get a paying job at a gallery or something soon.