Prince Hisahito of Japan, nephew of Emperor Naruhito and second in line to the Japanese imperial family, turns 15 this Monday, while his upbringing continues to be conditioned by the covid-19 pandemic.
The youngest son of Crown Prince Fumihito, Naruhito’s brother and first in line of succession, Hisahito is in his third year of high school at Ochanomizu University High School in Tokyo, where he has been taking some online classes.
Although his school trips have been reduced by the epidemiological situation, Hisahito attended conferences of social workers, the Imperial House Agency reported.
During the tour, the prince interacted with disabled staff from a florist and saw facilities related to the Tokyo Olympics aboard a water bus.
At a student festival in September last year, the prince and his colleagues posted in a video a series of interviews with people who had been suffering the consequences of the pandemic.
Her writing on a trip to the Ogasawara Islands with her mother, Princess Kiko, won a prize in a youth literature contest in the city of Kitakyushu (southwest) and Hisahito attended the “online” awards ceremony. “in March.
In August, the prince took part in an online event to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan and the fifth anniversary of the intense earthquakes that struck Kumamoto (southwest) on 2016, all the latter in which he was accompanied by survivors of the same.
Hisahito is the sole heir of his generation, as the law that currently governs the issues of the Imperial House (dating back to 1947, during the period of American occupation), states that only male descendants of the emperor can ascend the throne.
There are currently only three people who meet this requirement: their father, 55; his uncle-grandfather Prince Hitachi, 85, and third in line of succession; and Hisahito himself.
Emperor Naruhito has an only daughter, Aiko, 19, whose inheritance rights came to be debated before the birth of her cousin. With the arrival of the prince, talks on a reform of the Imperial House Act were set aside, although they have now resumed in the face of the succession problem.
Women of the Japanese imperial family cease to be members of the institution when they marry a man outside the family as well as their descendants and this is the only option they currently have to marry, given the lack of candidates.
This has led to a resumption of talks on regulatory reform and the consideration of allowing women to remain in the family to work in institutional representation or the recognition of their children as potential successors, but to this day everything remains focused. only in male descendants.
In this context, both his cousin Aiko and Hisahito’s older sisters, Mako (29) and Kako (26), will leave the family when they get married.