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Oops !…Prince Hisahito did it again !
By Hirokazu Nishimura (Tsukuba)
Abstract: This paper argues that Prince Hisahito (the son of Crown Prince Akishino) is
only a villain without intelligence at all. This is witnessed first by his plagiarism in
student compositions for prizes and second by his fabrication in scientific papers.
1. PLAGIARISM
This story is well known, so I only list some sites where the story is explained in detail.
∙ https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14551359
∙ https://royalcentral.co.uk/asia/japan/prince-hisahito-of-japan-accused-of-plagiarism-in-
award-winning-essay-172879/
∙ https://www.tatler.com/article/japans-heir-to-the-throne-accused-of-plagiarism-for-
essay-that-won-runners-up-prize
2. FABRICATION
Recently Hisahito has published a paper on dragonflies and damselflies in the Akasaka
Imperial Garden with Ken Iijima and Takuya Kiyoshi.
https://www.kahaku.go.jp/research/publication/zoology/download/49_4/L_BNMNS_49
-4_129.pdf
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bnmnszool/49/4/49_129/_pdf/-char/ja
The paper is written in Japanese, but its English abstract goes as follows.
“Faunal survey of dragonflies and damselflies in the Akasaka Imperial Garden, Tokyo,
was conducted during 2012 and 2022, and recorded a total amount of 38 species
including some species possibly occasionally came from outside (e.g. Anotogaster
sieboldii). Previous study from 2002 to 2004 by Saitô et al. (2005) reported 24 Odonata
species from the garden. In comparative with this record, additional 16 species are
newly recorded by our survey but two species were not re-observed. Almost all the
recorded species are lentic ones. It would be caused by the scarcity of lotic environment
in the garden. A total 12 threatened species ranked in the red list concerned with the
biota of Tokyo (Natural Environment Division, Bureau of Environment, Tokyo
Metropolitan Government, 2023) is found. This result could be one of rationales for the
continued preservation of the Akasaka Imperial Garden, one of previous urban greens in
the Tokyo metropolitan area.”
Its key words go as follows.
“dragonflies, damselflies, endangered species, urban green, Tokyo metropolitan area”
Although the abstract is short, it is written in poor English. By way of example, "In
comparative with this record" should be "In comparison with this record". It is well
known in Japan that every member of the Akishino family is poor at both English and
Japanese.
I will explain how and why No. 19 photo of a siberian winterdamsel (Sympecma
paedisca) is fabricated on the lines of the following three articles.
∙ https://etcetera-japan.com/was-the-sympecma-paedisca-lively-or-not-2
∙ https://etcetera-japan.com/several-strange-objects-on-and-by-the-sympecma-paedisca
∙ https://etcetera-japan.com/several-strange-objects-on-and-by-the-sympecma-paedisca
The crucial arguments in [https://etcetera-japan.com/was-the-sympecma-paedisca-
lively-or-not-2] go as follows.
We introduce the siberian winterdamsel that is currently attracting attention. Please take
a close look at how they "stop".
If you look at it this way, you can see that when a dragonfly comes to rest somewhere,
every leg is used effectively. The front and middle legs are always used, and although
the tips of the hind legs may seem a little free, they seem to be firmly gripped to adjust
the angle.
Here is Hisahito's photo of the siberian winterdamsel in the paper.
Wow, if you zoom in even further, it seems like the way it grips a branch is a little
different from other dragonflies.
A, which is thought to be the right hind leg, is floating. Furthermore, the two legs,
which are thought to be the middle legs, seem to intersect on the left and right at point B
for some reason. What you can see in front of your left eye is probably its front legs, but
I'm not sure what they are.
I also thought that creatures called dragonflies could not endure situations where their
bodies and wings were touched by foreign objects, but the dragonfly in this photo
appears to be supported in several places from the belly down.
I added red lines to things that could have been pillars. Regarding the bottom three, the
"tips" seem to disappear from the part that touches the belly, but maybe it's just my
imagination.
The objects that are in front of the dragonfly are circled in blue. Dragonflies have an
excellent ability to detect danger, but are they able to withstand a situation where their
bellies and backs are surrounded by foreign objects ?
The crucial arguments in [https://etcetera-japan.com/several-strange-objects-on-and-by-
the-sympecma-paedisca] go as follows.
In this work, I saved the image (resolution 301 ppi) embedded on p.137 of the paper
PDF on my computer and examined it using Photoshop. Furthermore, I lightly applied
sharpness to the image to emphasize its outline.
A strange object is seen in areas A and B surrounded by the red frame in this image.
First, let's talk about part A. If you zoom in, you can see two white terminal-like things.
Is this a dislocated leg joint? Moreover, the legs are crossed on the left and right and are
touching the grass ears.
On the other hand, in other photos of dragonflies on the Internet, there is no "white
terminal-like" structure on this part of the body. I have not found any individuals with
crossed legs.
Does this mean that the original right hind leg was removed from the joint, glued to the
left side, and crossed like scissors to adjust the width of the legs to match the thickness
of the grass ears? It seems possible to use glue for repairing insect specimens to attach
the legs.
Similarly, the right middle leg appears to have been removed and glued to the left side.
In fact, no such terminal is visible on the other side of the neck. (I felt sick as I was
imagining this as I was writing this...)
Next, about part B. A stick-shaped object is visible among the grass. It has a metallic
texture that differs from the green of the surrounding leaves and the color of withered
leaves, and it looks like it has a round head at the tip. It has a shape similar to an insect
needle.
The size of this object is approximately 5 to 6 pixels wide on the image. In order to
estimate the actual size, we will convert it based on the size of the dragonfly.
According to an "Illustrated book/Sympecma paedisca", the size of the male dragonfly
is 37 to 41 mm in total length and 26 to 31 mm in belly length, so let's assume that the
distance from head to body is about 10 mm.
When I measured the length of the subject dragonfly from its head to its body on the
image, it was approximately 120px. Although there may be some errors because the
photo was not taken directly from the side, the thickness of this mysterious object is
estimated to be approximately 0.4 to 0.5 mm.
According to an Insect Sales Center, the thickness of No. 1 headed insect needle is
about 0.4 mm, and the thickness of No. 3 needle is about 0.5 mm, which is consistent
with the characteristics of insect needles.
Additionally, the dragonfly No. 19 (pictured on the right) that appears in Hisahito's
dragonfly paper does not seem to be alive, as the base of its wings and neck are
discolored black.
The crucial arguments in [https://etcetera-japan.com/there-might-be-a-silk-thread-or-a-
nylon-string-around-the-dragonfly] go as follows.
There are thin thread-like lines around the dragonfly and pins. Let's look at the newly
pointed out existence of "extremely thin lines." Can you find them ?
In this photo, I have indicated the line you pointed out with a red arrow. The yellow
circle is the head of something that looks like a metal pin, and there also appear to be
faint lines on both sides.
This is truly an unexpected story, but in the worst case scenario, we might be able to
assume that the dragonfly was supported and suspended like this.