Tokyo

Japan's shrinking and ageing population has not spared even the royals. Japan's royal family recently celebrated the 18th birthday of Prince Hisahito who is now the first male in the family to reach adulthood in 40 years. 

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Hisahito will become the emperor one day and is the nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito. The last male in the family to reach adulthood was his father, Crown Prince Akishino. This was way back in 1985. 

The imperial family, which has ruled for more than a millennium, has 17 members and Hisahito is the youngest of them all. There are only four men in the family. 

Japan's royal family is struggling to keep the succession line going as he is the last heir apparent. This is because the law does not allow females to ascend the throne. The 1947 Imperial House Law only allows a male to succeed.

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Meanwhile, women often marry commoners and lose their royal status, vanishing from the limelight. 

Emperor Naruhito and his Harvard-educated wife Masako have only one child, Princess Aiko. She is quite popular among the people of Japan who want to see her become Empress. But, despite being from the direct line of descent, the law won't let her succeed her dad.

Meanwhile, Hisahito is the son of Akishino, the brother of Emperor Naruhito. So now, being the only male member of that group, he is next in line to become Emperor.

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Hisahito's birth in 2006 shelved the proposal to allow an empress to take over. But he is not talking about his future role yet. “Right now I would like to cherish my remaining time in high school," Hisahito said in a statement. 

He is interested in studying insects and has co-authored an academic paper on a survey of dragonflies on the grounds of his Akasaka estate in Tokyo, the statement said.

In 2022, experts asked the government to bring in a proposal allowing female members to keep their royal status after marriage. This would prevent the declining population within the imperial family. It also asked to adopt male descendants from the defunct royal families to continue the male lineage with distant relatives.

However, experts say that until the male-only rule is changed, this might not work since it worked because of the concubines in early times.