He was born in a
shelter home amid the
air raid on Tokyo as the eldest son of Prince
Morihiro Higashikuni and
Shigeko, Princess Teru, the eldest daughter of
Hirohito, then the reigning
Emperor of Japan. After departing from the Imperial Palace, he studied at the
Keio University Law School and worked at
Mitsui Bank. He was appointed as a member of the
Thai Association of Japan, and subsequently the executive director, managing director, Kakari member, etc. In June 2008, he assumed the honorary presidency of the All Japan Baseball Conference. In July 2009, he assumed the role of honorary adviser of the Japan-US Friendship Bridge Executive Committee. Other positions held by Higashikuni were; Honorary Chairman of the Society "Togo Association" and Honorary President of the Association to Protect Japanese Tradition. Higashikuni married Yoshiko Shimada in June 1972. The Shimada family is a commoner family which runs a real estate management business (apartment/parking lot management) in
Yokohama, but Emperor Hirohito liked Shimada's homely appearance and blessed Nobuhiko's marriage. In the following year a boy, Masahiko, was born to the couple. ==Ancestry ==