Royal Profile: Prince Hisahito of Akishino

Prince Hisahito of Akishino was born 6 September 2006 as the youngest child and only son of Prince and Princess Akishino {Source}. He has two older sisters:

 

• Princess Mako of Akishino (1991)
• Princess Kako of Akishino (1994)

 

His personal name Hisahito in this case means "serene and virtuous," according to the Imperial Household Agency. An alternative translation is "virtuous, calm, everlasting." His name was chosen by his father, and the Imperial crest used to mark his belongings is koyamaki (Japanese Umbrella-pine) tree.

 

Currently, he is attending Ochanomizu University Elementary School{Source}.

 

He was the first male child born to the Imperial House of Japan since his father in 1965. In January 2007, the then Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe, 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 two sons of Emperor Akihito 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 and only child of the heir-apparent to the throne, Crown Prince Naruhito, to become a reigning Empress and thus end the Japanese succession controversy. Although Imperial chronologies include eight reigning empresses over the course of Japanese history, they are regarded as interim or "caretaker" rulers, who did not pass the throne to their own children. Their successors were most often selected from amongst males of the paternal Imperial bloodline once those males grew old enough to rule, which is why some conservative scholars argue that the women's reigns were merely temporary and that the male-only succession tradition must be maintained.

 

Upon his grandfather's abdication in 2019, he will become second in order of succession for the Japanese throne after his father.