Japan's Princess Nori smiles after attending a student speech contest in Tokyo, November 14, 2004. Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, plans to marry a 39-year-old Tokyo metropolitan government official named Yoshiki Kuroda early next year, media reports said on Sunday.  (Reuters)

Japan's Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, will announce her intentions to marry a 39-year-old city government official in the coming weeks, an official said Sunday.

Sayako, 35, also known by her royal title Norinomiya, and her husband-to-be, Yoshiki Kuroda, have already received the blessings of the emperor and empress, public broadcaster NHK TV said Sunday. The national Asahi newspaper carried a similar report.

The Imperial Household Agency said the couple, who were classmates at Tokyo's elite Gakushuin University, were initially to be engaged earlier this month. But they delayed the announcement out of respect for victims of last month's powerful earthquake in northern Japan and typhoons across the country earlier this year, an agency official, Shingo Haketa, told reporters.

Another agency official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said no formal announcement is likely to be made until at least late December. He criticized the Japanese media for prematurely reporting the engagement.

Kuroda, a former banker who joined the Tokyo government in 1997, appeared before TV cameras but refused to comment.

Under the Imperial Household Law, Sayako will become a commoner once she is married. She has two brothers, Crown Prince Naruhito, 44, and Prince Akishino, 38.

The last time a member of Japan's royal family became a commoner through marriage was the emperor's cousin, Princess Masako, in 1983.

Sayako is an ornithologist at a research institute in Chiba, near Tokyo, where she has conducted research on kingfishers and bird flu strains. Reports said she and Kuroda have known each other since they were children.

(Agencies)

prematurely : too soon; in a premature manner（過早地）

commoner : a person who holds no title（平民）

ornithologist : a zoologist who studies birds（鳥類學家）