Prince Eugene Acceptance in Tsukuba High School Tainted with Suspicion of Plagiarism of His Essay

The eldest son of the Akishino family, Prince Eugene (15), has been accepted to Tsukuba University High School (Chikuzuke) and will enter the school in April.

He took the general exam, but in the end it was announced that he would be entering the school through the ‘Affiliated School System’. This system was established between Ochanomizu University and Tsukuba University, where Prince Eugene is currently enrolled, and allows him to transfer to the junior and senior high schools affiliated with both universities if he passes an interview and document screening.

(Imperial Household Journalist) This system, which was established in 2017, is said to be limited to five years, and since it falls right around the time of Prince Eugene’s entrance examinations for junior and senior high school, some people pointed out that it was a system for him or a special route.

It is also true that there are questions from the public on this point as well, since Chikuzuke is a nationally recognized school for higher education and it is normal to consider applying to difficult-to-enter high schools at the same time. It is true that there have been questions from the public about this point as well, but it seems that the Imperial Household Agency has already assumed that this is the case and has no particular plans to give an explanation.

In a sense, the criticism and dissatisfaction that arose during the process from the entrance examination to the acceptance was “expected,” but on the day of the announcement of the acceptance, there was a series of “unexpected” reports. One of the reports pointed out that the essay in which Prince Eugene won the literary prize had been found to be very similar to an earlier work (“Ogasawara: A World Heritage Site”).

The essay, titled “A Visit to the Ogasawara Islands,” is a recollection of a visit to the Ogasawara Islands with her mother, Noriko, when she was in the fifth grade of elementary school. During the summer vacation of his second year of junior high school, he entered his essay in the “Children’s Nonfiction Literature Award” sponsored by the Kitakyushu Literature Museum as a school project, and received an honorable mention in the junior high school category. When “Josei Seven” reported this, the general newspapers followed suit. It became a big topic of conversation.

I don’t have to mention the precautions for entering this literary award, but it says, “Do not use other people’s sentences without permission. If you do, please enclose the text in “” or drop the paragraphs so that we can distinguish between your own text and that of others. Also, please be sure to write where you got the idea from.

On February 16, the Imperial Household Agency admitted that it had “failed to specify the source of the quotation,” and issued an announcement saying, “Prince Eugene is grateful for the suggestion.”

The Imperial Household Agency was shocked when this matter was pointed out to them. It was a serious matter that the future emperor had done something that could be suspected of plagiarism in some cases.

In fact, they tried to take it back because it was an omission, but it was quite unusual for His Majesty to disclose what was going on in his heart. It is also about the trip he took with Noriko, and since his writing skills have been highly praised, some people are worried that it might be a serious matter that would negate that…” (Imperial Household Agency official)

There is no doubt that this was an incident that could blow away the celebration of the students who passed the high school entrance exam, but we can only hope that it will not have a major impact on their high school life that is about to begin.