Daily Times

Japan got a new highly eligible bachelor on Friday 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, they 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. 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. Naruhito has a daughter, Aiko, 22, but she cannot succeed her father under the Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947, because of her gender. Royal women must also leave the family when they wed a commoner — as in 2021, when former princess Mako, Hisahito’s other sister, married her university sweetheart.