Fushimi Hiroaki

Who is Fushimi Hiroaki?

Fushimi Hiroaki is the only son of Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi, and 24th head of the Fushimi-no-miya shinnōke.

Fushimi Hiroaki was born in Tokyo, and educated at the Gakushuin Peers School. His father, Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi was a naval commander in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and died shortly after the opening stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Prince Hiroaki, therefore, became the twenty-fourth head of the Fushimi-no-miya upon the death of grandfather, Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, on 16 August 1946.

He was styled His Imperial Highness. With the abolition of the collateral branches of the Imperial household by the American occupation authorities after the end of the Pacific War, Prince Fushimi became a commoner, Hiroaki Fushimi on 14 October 1947. He later traveled to the United States and attended Centre College in Kentucky. He returned to Japan to pursue a career with Mobil Oil.

His late wife, the former Tokiko Yoshikawa, was the daughter of the president of Yoshikawa Optical Instruments. The couple has three daughters: Masako, Nobuko, and Akiko.