Japan's only young imperial heir, Prince Hisahito, turns 18

TOKYO - Japan got a new highly eligible bachelor on Sept 6 as Prince Hisahito, the imperial family’s last hope for long-term survival unless the rules are changed to allow female succession, turned 18.

Although his formal coming-of-age ceremony has been pushed back to at least 2025 so he can finish school, according to the Imperial Household Agency, it released a video of him strolling in woods, saying he is “extremely interested” in natural history.

“I hope to learn more through each and every experience, absorbing various aspects and growing through them,” the prince was quoted as saying.

Prince Hisahito is the only son of Crown Prince Akishino, 58, and Crown Princess Kiko, 57, and is second in line to succeed his uncle, Emperor Naruhito, 64.

Emperor Naruhito has a daughter, Princess Aiko, 22, with his wife Empress Masako, 60, a former diplomat. But the princess cannot succeed her father under the Imperial Household Law because of her gender.

Royal women must also leave the family when they wed a commoner – as in 2021, when former princess Mako, Prince Hisahito’s elder of two sisters, married her university sweetheart.

The same rule does not apply to male members of the family, however, with Emperor Naruhito’s father Akihito, 90, having wed Michiko, 89, the daughter of a flour magnate whom he met on a tennis court in 1959.

The imperial family, whose history according to legend goes back 2,600 years, formally renounced its divine status after Japan’s defeat in World War II and has no political power.

Emperor Akihito, who abdicated in 2019 due to his age and poor health, is credited with modernising the institution.

The Imperial Household Agency opened its first Instagram account in April, but many of the photos are formally staged, showing only the activities of the current emperor, his wife and his daughter.

Lawmakers in May began discussing possible relaxations to the strict succession rules, and a recent Kyodo News poll found 90 per cent public support for female succession.

But resistance among conservative MPs, who revere the royals as the perfect example of a patriarchal Japanese family, makes that change unlikely any time soon.

Aside from Prince Hisahito and his father, the only other heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne is the emperor’s childless uncle, Prince Hitachi, 88. AFP