is the youngest child and only son of the

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the w ...

and Crown Princess of Japan. He is the nephew of Emperor Naruhito and second in line to the throne after his father, Fumihito.

Birth

Prince Hisahito of Akishino Newspaper 2006-9-12 02

Hisahito was born at 08:27 JST (23:27 UTC) on 6 September 2006 at Aiiku Hospital,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. He was delivered by

Caesarean section Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or m ...

, two weeks early, after complications in the pregnancy. Hisahito is the only son and youngest child of Fumihito, Prince Akishino, and Kiko, Princess Akishino. He has two older sisters,

Mako Komuro , formerly , is a former member of the Japanese imperial family. She is the eldest child of Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko, niece of Emperor Naruhito, and granddaughter of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko ...

and Princess Kako of Akishino. He was first seen in public on 15 September 2006, outside Aiiku Hospital. Hisahito, the Prince's personal name, chosen by his father, means "serene and virtuous", according to the

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial Family, and also the keeping of the Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century AD, up until the Second World War, it ...

. An alternative translation is "virtuous, calm, everlasting". Hisahito was the first male child born to the

Imperial House of Japan The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...

since his father in 1965. In January 2007, the Prime Minister of Japan,

Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

, announced that he would drop an earlier proposal to alter the Imperial Household Law so as to allow females to inherit the throne. The proposal had been made on the basis of the fact that the brother and two sons of Emperor

Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. B ...

had, at the time, no sons of their own. Given Hisahito's birth, it now seems increasingly unlikely that the laws will be changed to allow Hisahito's cousin, Princess Aiko, daughter of the Emperor

Naruhito is the current Emperor of Japan. He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne on 1 May 2019, beginning the Reiwa era, following the abdication of his father, Akihito. He is the 126th monarch according to Japan's traditional order of succession ...

, to become a reigning Empress and thus end the

Japanese succession debate From 2005 to 2012, Japan discussed the possibility of changing the laws of succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, which is currently limited to males of the Japanese Imperial Family. As of 2021, there are three people in the line of succe ...

. The supporters of changes criticized the current law as it placed a burden on the few aging males old enough to perform royal duties as females left the family.

Education

In the spring of 2010, Prince Hisahito began kindergarten at a school affiliated with

Ochanomizu University is a women's university in the Ōtsuka neighborhood of Bunkyō-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Ochanomizu University is one of the top national universities in Japan. Ochanomizu is the name of a Tokyo neighborhood where the university was founded. ...

in Tokyo; on 14 December 2012, the

announced he would enter Ochanomizu University Elementary School in April 2013 so he could be with many of his friends from kindergarten. The prince thus became the first member of the Imperial House of Japan to receive his education at a school other than Gakushūin Primary School, which is also in Tokyo. By his second year, he was reported to be doing well at school, helping to look after first-year pupils and playing with his friends. In April 2019, Hisahito was enrolled in Ochanomizu University Junior High School. Police reports indicate that there was an assassination attempt on him there in May 2019. In March 2021, he was awarded a second-place prize in the junior high student category of

Kitakyushu is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fukuoka. It is one o ...

's 12th Children's Nonfiction Literature Awards. In August 2019, he accompanied his parents on an official visit to

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

Titles and styles

Hisahito is styled as ''His Imperial Highness'' Prince Hisahito. The ''

mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

'' represents the Japanese umbrella-pine tree (''kōyamaki'').

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hisahito of Akishino, Prince 2006 births Living people People from Tokyo Japanese princes Royal children 21st-century Japanese people