TOKYO: Japan on Saturday heralded the coming-of-age of Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing.

The nephew of Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk and lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life.

“Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming of age ceremony,” Hisahito said.

“I will fulfil my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.”

Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only succession rules.

“As a young member of the Imperial Family, I am determined to fulfil my role,” Hisahito said in March.

Second in line to become emperor after his father, the 19-year-old will appear at the Tokyo palace to pay his respects to gods and ancestors.

Although tradition dictates only a man can carry on the imperial line — which goes back 2,600 years according to legend — opinion polls have shown high public support for a woman taking the throne.

“It makes no difference to me whether a woman becomes the emperor or a man does,” said Tokyo bartender Yuta Hinago.

The 33-year-old felt there could be “room for more flexibility” in the succession rules.

Japan has debated the royal succession for decades, with a key government panel in 2005 recommending that it pass to the oldest child regardless of their sex.

That appeared to pave the way for the emperor’s daughter to rise to the Chrysanthemum Throne, but Hisahito’s birth the following year silenced the debate.

Politicians have been slow to act, “kicking the can down the road,” and delaying a solution with youthful Hisahito in view, said Kenneth Ruoff, director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at Portland State University.

Traditionalists have asserted that the “unbroken imperial line” of male succession is the foundation of Japan, and major changes would divide the nation.

Under the post-war constitution, the royal family holds no political power.

Pressure on women

With royal daughters forced to leave the family after marriage, one modernising proposal would see them continue their public duties after their nuptials.

Conservatives, meanwhile, are pushing for the royal household to bring distant relatives back to the fold.

But it is unclear if those men would be willing to give up their careers and freedom to continue the lineage.

Hisahito said this year he has “not yet thought deeply” about his own marriage prospects, which could be challenging.

Historically, women who wed royals have faced intense pressure to produce sons and have become constant subjects of gossip.

Empress Masako, a former high-flying diplomat, struggled for years with a stress-related illness after joining the household, which some have put down to the pressure to have a boy.

Emperess Emerita Michiko, Naruhito’s mother, also suffered stress-induced illnesses.

Hisahito’s sister, Mako, married her university boyfriend Kei Komuro.

She has faced intense tabloid reporting over claims that Kei’s family had run into financial difficulties, leading the former princess to develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder. The couple left for the United States, where they recently had a baby.

Other members of the royal family are regular subjects of online and media gossip.

Despite broad public support for changing the succession rules, away from the pageantry, people are focused on other issues, such as rising inflation, royal historian Hideya Kawanishi told AFP.

“If people who are generally supportive (of women emperors) become a bit louder, then politicians can become more serious,” said Kawanishi, an associate professor at Nagoya University.

“But when ceremonies end, society, including the media, calms down and moves on.”

• Appeals court blocks Trump’s foreign aid cuts.
• Trump loses bid to freeze $4bn foreign aid.
• Laws binding unless Congress changes them: judge

A US appeals court on Friday declined to block a lower court ruling that said President Donald Trump’s administration could not unilaterally cut billions of dollars of foreign aid, requiring the administration to quickly move to spend funds on projects authorised by Congress.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made its ruling just days after a lower court ruled that the administration should take steps to spend roughly $11 billion on foreign aid projects before Congressional authorisation for the spending expires in September.

The appeals court did not explain its decision, saying only that the Trump administration had not “satisfied the stringent requirements” to pause the ruling pending an appeal. Circuit Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, dissented and said he would have paused the lower court decision.

After being sued by aid groups that expected to compete for the funding this year, the Trump administration said it intended to spend $6.5 billion of the funds appropriated for foreign aid in 2024. But it moved to withhold $4 billion in funding appropriated for the US Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration has largely dismantled.

US District Judge Amir Ali in Washington, DC, ruled on Wednesday that the administration cannot simply choose not to spend the money, and said it remains under a duty to comply with appropriations laws unless Congress changes them.

Ali’s order, if it survives throughout the appeal process, would prevent Trump from effectively bypassing Congress to cancel foreign aid funding.

While the lawsuit proceeded, Trump sought to block $4 billion in disputed funding through a “pocket rescission” that bypasses Congress.

Trump budget director Russell Vought has argued that the president can withhold funds for 45 days after requesting a rescission, which would run out the clock until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. The White House said the tactic was last used in 1977.

The money at issue was earmarked for foreign aid, United Nations peace-keeping operations, and democracy-promotion efforts overseas.

Ali ruled that merely asking Congress to rescind the $4 billion is not enough, saying that the spending should proceed unless Congress affirmatively acts to stop it.

Ali said he ruled quickly to provide higher courts time to weigh in before the funds reach their expiration dates. The 6-3 conservative majority US Supreme Court has already intervened once in the case, requiring the Trump administration to pay foreign aid organisations for work they already performed for the government.

SYDNEY: A suspected “large shark” mauled a surfer to death in a rare fatal attack off a Sydney beach on Saturday, Australian police and rescuers said, leading to a string of beach closures.

The man was pulled out of the Pacific surf onto shore at northern Sydney’s Long Reef Beach but died at the scene, New South Wales police said in a statement.

“A man has died on the Northern Beaches after being bitten by what is believed to have been a large shark,” police said.

Two sections of a surfboard were recovered and taken for examination, police said, adding that they were working with experts to identify the species of shark involved.

Images of the scene on local media showed police gathered on the shore and ambulances parked nearby.

The victim was bitten by the ocean predator while surfing in the morning away from a patrolled area of the beach, according to Surf Life Saving NSW.

Beaches between the northern suburbs of Manly and Narrabeen have been closed for at least 24 hours, it said.

“For now, please remain clear of the water at beaches in the vicinity and follow the direction of lifeguards and lifesavers,” Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said in a statement.

“Our deepest condolences go to the family of the man involved in this terrible tragedy.”

Surf life saving clubs nearby have cancelled all water activity and training for the weekend.

‘Critical injuries’

It was the first fatal shark attack in Sydney since 2022, when 35-year-old British diving instructor Simon Nellist was killed off Little Bay.

The previous fatal attack in the city was in 1963.

Drones were now scanning the beach for shark activity, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC.

Police said emergency services rushed to the scene following alerts that the man, who was not identified, had suffered “critical injuries”.

An unnamed surfer said the victim had been surfing off the adjoining Long Reef and Dee Why beaches.

“Four or five surfers pulled him out of the water and it looked like a significant part of his lower half had been attacked,” the surfer said, according to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

People were ordered out of the water, he told the paper.

“There was a surf lifesaving guy waving a red flag,” the surfer said. “I didn’t know what it was … but thought I should probably go in (to shore).”

Australia’s last deadly shark attack was in March, when a surfer was taken off the remote Wharton Beach of Western Australia.

There have been more than 1,280 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death, according to a database of the predators’ encounters with humans.