Overview

• Palace rites on Saturday formalized his adulthood with a crown presentation, traditional attire, a horse-drawn visit to palace shrines, and audiences with Emperor Naruhito and the emeritus couple, followed by scheduled visits next week to Ise and imperial mausoleums and a lunch with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
• He is second in line after his father, Crown Prince Akishino, yet under current law no eligible successor is defined after Hisahito, with the next in line, Prince Hitachi, already 89.
• Japan previously had female sovereigns, but the 1889 constitution and the 1947 Imperial House Law restrict the throne to males.
• Lawmakers have not reached consensus, with a 2005 proposal to allow a female emperor shelved after Hisahito’s birth and a 2022 expert panel urging male-line succession alongside letting princesses keep status or adopting male descendants.
• A freshman at Tsukuba University, he studies biology, has published on dragonflies at the Akasaka estate, and has stated research goals focused on protecting urban insect populations.