Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko invited Princess Kiko and little Prince Hisahito to join them for a little sea excursion near the Imperial Villa in the town of Hayama, south of Tokyo. The Imperial Family took a small boat they rowed themselves for the excursion; the boat had been used by Emperor Showa for his research of sea creatures. After they returned, the family proudly watched as 3-years-old Prince Hisahito steadily walked off the boat on a narrow plank: although the little Prince walked unaided, his grandparents, mother and local people all kept watchful eyes on him.

Click to view more pictures from Kyodo

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko then showed their informal side, helping people to bring the boat ashore. Their Imperial Majesties appeared to be in good health and physical form and had obviously enjoyed the excursion. Princess Kiko and Prince Hisahito looked delighted with the family outing as well. Princesses Kako, Mako and Aiko wouldn’t be able to join the family because the school year has already started.

Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak expressed hope today that Emperor Akihito will visit Seoul next year on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of Korea. President Lee hopes that the visit would help to move Japanese-Korean relationships forward and would be a symbolic gesture to put an end to historical tensions between the two neighbors.

During a press conference, President Lee said: “Korea and Japan have difficulty in improving relations due to the past. Emperor Akihito’s visit to Seoul will have a significant meaning and would show that the countries can leave the past behind and try to develop a future-oriented relationship. The visit would be meaningful, produce positive results, and be a step permanently removing the distance between the two countries. The Emperor has traveled all around the world, but couldn’t visit Korea. I’m confident that Japanese-Korean relations will improve rapidly if he visits Korea”.

Marsel Japanese Royals Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, President Lee, Prince Hisahito, Princess Kiko, South Korea

Prince Hisahito, the third child and only son of Prince and Princess Akishino, turned three on September 6th. Hisahito is the first male child born to the Imperial Family in 41 years and currently holds third place in line to the Japanese Throne, after his uncle and father. Prince Hisahito has 2 older sisters, 17 years old Princess Mako and 14 years old Princess Kako.

click to view full-sized image from Japan Times

Pictures released on occasion of Prince Hisahito’s birthday show him riding a bicycle and later, dressed in traditional Japanese attire. According to reports, the little Prince is a lively boy who enjoys outdoor activities, playing with toy balls and helping with gardening. He is currently 3’1’’ tall and weighs about 30 lbs.

His parents and sisters affectionately call him ‘Yuyu’, ‘Yu-chan’ and ‘Hisahito-Kun’.

Before Prince Hisahito’s birth, the Imperial Family of Japan had been plagued by lack of male heirs. That led to increasingly vocal calls to amend the Imperial Succession Laws so that Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, could ascend to the Throne one day. However, with the birth of the male Heir, the calls for Imperial equality have been largely stifled: in 2007, Prince Minister Shinzo Abe officially announced that he would not go forward with plans to alter the succession laws. Since Prince Hisahito’s birth, his parents have acquired a more prominent role in the Imperial Family: as critics note, they are often called to fulfil engagements befitting the Crown Prince and Princess.

You can find more information about Prince Hisahito, including pictures and videos from his birthday, in this thread.

Marsel Japanese Royals Birthday, Portraits, Prince Hisahito, Succession

Click here to read an article about the couple´s visit to Bulgaria

 On May 10, Prince and Princess Akishino are expected in Austria for a four-day visit. They are scheduled to visit there Klosterneuburg diocese, Vienna’s Schönbrunn Castle, the Neusiedler Lake National Park in the province of Burgenland as well as the Japanese school of Vienna and the capital’s Museum for Natural History. 

Princess Akishino’s stay in the European country will probably remind the Japanese princess of happy times, as the former Kiko Kawashima attended elementary and high school in Austria when her father, Tatsuhiko Kawashima, became the chief researcher at The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, near Vienna. Stemming from that time, the princess is fluent in German. That Princess Kiko, as she is informally called, has always kept in touch with some of her father´s old friends in Austria, Norbert and Gabriele Orac, became obvious to the public in summer 2006 when the couple invited her eldest daughter, Princess Mako, for a two-weeks stay at their home in the suburbs of Vienna.

Prince and Princess Akishino will continue their trip by departing for Bulgaria on May 13 where they will stay until May 16, in order to mark the 50th anniversary of the reinstatement of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Japan. The couple will also visit Hungary and Romania, as 2009 is proclaimed the year of friendship between Japan and the Danube states. In January, Bulgaria’s President, Georgi Parvanov, and his wife, Zorka Parvanova, paid an official visit to Japan. (Photo)

Read more…

ChiaraC Japanese Royals Austria, Bulgaria, Official Visit, Prince Akishino, Prince Hisahito, Princess Kiko, Succession