{"id":29815,"date":"2026-05-27T15:40:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/29815\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:40:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:40:36","slug":"japans-prince-hisahito-made-his-state-banquet-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/29815\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Prince Hisahito Made His State Banquet Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/fre\/static\/icons\/clock-regular.4ddebeb.svg\" alt=\"Estimated read time\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>2 min read<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"0\" class=\"body-dropcap css-1r5mo5b emevuu60\">It\u2019s a historic day for Prince Hisahito of Japan. The young prince, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/a66013981\/prince-hisahito-coming-of-age-ceremony-japan-imperial-throne-2025\/\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/a66013981\/prince-hisahito-coming-of-age-ceremony-japan-imperial-throne-2025\/\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"officially came of age last year\" data-node-id=\"0.1\" class=\"body-link css-wwtvcb emevuu60\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">officially came of age last year<\/a>, had a royal first: attending a royal banquet to welcome a state guest. In this case, the banquet was being held for Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his wife, Liza Araneta Marcos, at the Imperial Palace as part of a state visit to Japan.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"1\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The Imperial Household Agency announced the prince\u2019s participation over the weekend, making it clear that Hisahito was being allowed to attend because the event would not interrupt his studies at the University of Tsukuba, and that he would be attending classes before the banquet.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"2\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The household further clarified that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/a68061668\/japanese-royal-family-tree-explained\/\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/a68061668\/japanese-royal-family-tree-explained\/\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"Hisahito\u2019s father, Crown Prince Akishino\" data-node-id=\"2.1\" class=\"body-link css-wwtvcb emevuu60\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hisahito\u2019s father, Crown Prince Akishino<\/a>, and his two older sisters, former-Princess Mako (who now uses the name <a href=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/a64927229\/princess-mako-first-child\/\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/a64927229\/princess-mako-first-child\/\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"Mako Komuro\" data-node-id=\"2.3\" class=\"body-link css-wwtvcb emevuu60\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mako Komuro<\/a> after surendering her royal title in order to marry a commoner) and Princess Kako, all began attending state banquets during their college years.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"5\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The move is an important step toward the prince\u2019s future, as he is currently second in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/g61145915\/japan-line-of-succession\/\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/society\/tradition\/g61145915\/japan-line-of-succession\/\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"line of succession to the Chrysanthemum throne\" data-node-id=\"5.1\" class=\"body-link css-wwtvcb emevuu60\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">line of succession to the Chrysanthemum throne<\/a> behind his father. The only other member of the line of succession is the 90-year-old Prince Hitachi, younger brother to Hisahito\u2019s grandfather Emperor Emeritus Akihito. This is all due to Japan\u2019s succession laws, which only allow the throne to pass through the male line. While Emperor Naruhito and his wife, Empress Masako, share a daughter, Princess Aiko, she, like Hisahito\u2019s older sisters, is not eligible for the throne. In fact, when the prince reached the age of majority in 2025, he became first male royal in the family to reach adulthood <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/japan-prince-imperial-family-succession-2a445dea7bbfa16e94e96f4f9b217e01\" target=\"_blank\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/japan-prince-imperial-family-succession-2a445dea7bbfa16e94e96f4f9b217e01\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"in 40 years\" data-node-id=\"5.3\" class=\"body-link css-wwtvcb emevuu60\">in 40 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bcf4ede8-fe3d-4d01-960b-39d06ef3fe67_1490202839.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of Lauren Hubbard\" title=\"Headshot of Lauren Hubbard\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"css-o0wq4v ev8dhu53\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town &amp; Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2 min read It\u2019s a historic day for Prince Hisahito of Japan. The young prince, who officially came&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6517,316,23226,318,12818,8,317,6518,23225,6515],"class_list":["post-29815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-collection-royal-family-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-b24e4ce3-c7cf-43da-8e70-99eec05fe4d5","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-japan","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-2","tag-shorttitle-prince-hisahito-made-his-state-banquet-debut","tag-subsection-heritage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}