Westerners inculcated with modern democratic values will wonder what the fuss is about. Soon after the princess and Komuro announced their engagement in 2017, Japanese gossip magazines began to report "financial problems" between Komuro's widowed mother and an unnamed Mr. A described as her "former fiance." Mr. A, it was reported, had "loaned" Komuro's mother 4 million yen ($36,000) back in 2010 before their engagement was terminated. Mr. A told the magazines that the "debt" had not been repaid. Modern-minded Westerners will be surprised, and indeed offended, that a dispute over a relatively small sum between Komuro's mother and ex-boyfriend should have any bearing on her son or his wedding plans. After all, modern democratic values emphatically reject the ancient belief in collective tribal guilt, that the son is responsible for the father's sins. So, too, we have moved on from the related pre-modern notion that one must not marry outside of one's tribe, or below or above one's station. Ah, but there's the rub. Monarchy itself is anti-democratic. It is a status handed down from father to son based on blood, not individual merit. Outside Japan, that one's intended marriage partner's parents declared personal bankruptcy or divorced is no longer an insurmountable barrier. In Japan, "good family backgrounds" still matter, especially for the older sister of a future Emperor.