On the wooded grounds of Jinseki Kogen in Hiroshima, the work of a national Scout jamboree is measured in practical tasks: putting up tents, preparing food, cutting timber and learning to live alongside people from places beyond one's own hometown.
This week, one of those participants was 19-year-old Prince Hisahito, the eldest son of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, who joined Scouts at Japan's largest national Scouting gathering during his first official visit to Hiroshima.
The 19th Nippon Scout Jamboree, held from Aug. 4 to Aug. 10 in Jinseki Kogen, brought together about 8,000 people, including 4,800 Scouts, 1,200 leaders, 400 overseas participants and representatives of related organizations, and 1,600 operational staff, according to the Scout Association of Japan. Its theme, “Challenge — A Step into the Future from Jinsekikogen,” places outdoor activity and exchange at the center of a week-long camp.
For Hisahito, the visit added another dimension to an event built around ordinary Scout skills. Japanese media reported that he was scheduled to work alongside Scouts of his generation to pitch a tent, prepare breakfast and take part in activities including cutting logs.
The setting matters. Jinseki Kogen, in Hiroshima Prefecture, is a highland area where the jamboree site sits at an average elevation of about 700 metres. For a national gathering that brings together thousands of young people, camping is not simply a backdrop but part of the program itself. The organizers describe the event as an opportunity for Scouts to take on new challenges while building connections with participants from Japan and abroad.
Hisahito's participation also marked a new stage in his public role.
The Imperial Household Agency says Hisahito entered the University of Tsukuba's College of Life and Environmental Sciences in April 2025 after graduating from Tsukuba University-affiliated High School. He came of age in September 2025 and has since begun attending public events within the limits of his university studies. His activities have included environmental programs, meetings with Scouts who received the Fuji Scout Award and visits to sporting and cultural events.
The Hiroshima trip was his first official visit to the prefecture. Hiroshima Prefecture announced that he would travel there on Aug. 7 and 8 for the jamboree and other visits.
His schedule placed Scouting within a broader journey through the history of Hiroshima.
Before travelling to the jamboree grounds, Hisahito visited Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and offered flowers at the cenotaph for the victims of the atomic bombing, according to reports on the itinerary. He was also scheduled to visit the Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum, whose surviving school building bears witness to the bombing, before travelling to Jinseki Kogen for the Scout gathering.
At the jamboree, he was expected to address the gathering — his first remarks at a public official event — before continuing with the more practical side of the camp program. On the following day, he was scheduled to participate in breakfast preparation and other activities with Scouts, then visit the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History in Fukuyama.
The combination of ceremony and campcraft reflects the long relationship between Japan's imperial family and Scouting.
Hisahito is not the first member of the imperial family to attend a Japanese Scout jamboree. Japanese media noted that Emperor Naruhito, when he was Crown Prince, had attended a previous jamboree, while Hisahito's parents, Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, attended the previous national gathering in 2022.
The Scout Association's event schedule describes the 19th jamboree as a six-night, seven-day gathering, with participants drawn from across Japan and overseas. The international dimension is deliberately limited but significant: the organizers set a total participation target of 8,000, including about 400 overseas participants and representatives of related organizations.
For young Scouts, that makes the jamboree a meeting point between everyday local Scouting and a wider world. International participants have travelled to Hiroshima from countries including Australia and Taiwan, with national Scout organizations describing the event as an opportunity for young people to experience Japanese Scouting, outdoor life and cultural exchange.
The event's emphasis on challenge also gives the prince's participation a distinctly practical character. Rather than observing the jamboree only from a formal platform, his announced program placed him alongside Scouts in activities that are fundamental to camping: constructing shelter, preparing food and working with basic tools.
That approach is consistent with the organizers' stated purpose. The jamboree's theme expresses a hope that individual Scouts will use the experience to take a new step toward their futures, while its activities include outdoor adventure, cultural exchange, community engagement and environmental learning.
For Hisahito, the two-day Hiroshima visit therefore combined several strands of his emerging public role: learning about a place marked by wartime history, meeting young people of his generation and taking part in an institution with which Japan's imperial family has maintained ties for decades.
The tents at Jinseki Kogen are temporary. The jamboree itself will end on Aug. 10, and the Scouts will return to their communities. But for those gathered there, the central lesson of the week is framed by the event's own theme: challenge is not an abstract idea. It is something learned by taking the next step, together, from the campsite into whatever comes after it.
