Japan’s Prince Hisahito, the second in line to the throne, held a debut news conference on Monday, telling reporters he would try to balance official duties and his university studies and research about the dragonfly.

Hisahito turned 18 last September, becoming the first male royal family member to reach adulthood in almost four decades in Japan. It marked a significant development for a family that has ruled for more than a millennium but faces the same existential problems as the rest of the nation — a fast-aging, shrinking population.

The prince said he would follow the good examples of his uncle, Emperor Naruhito, and other elder members of the Imperial family, while pursuing his university studies, beginning next month.

Speaking to reporters at the Akasaka Estate residence in Tokyo, Hisahito said he believes the role of the emperor as a symbolic figure is someone who “always thinks of the people and stays close to them.”

Hisahito is second in line to Japan’s Chrysanthemum Throne, only after his father, Crown Prince Akishino. Before Hisahito’s birthday last year, his father had been the last male to reach adulthood in the family in 1985.

The prince is the youngest of the 16-member all-adult imperial family and one of only five men, including former Emperor Akihito. He said he barely had time to celebrate his adulthood on September 6 as he is still finishing high school.

The 1947 Imperial House Law, which largely preserves conservative pre-war family values, only allows a male to succeed to the throne. Female royal members who marry commoners lose their royal status.

Hisahito’s older cousin, Princess Aiko — the only child of Naruhito and his wife Masako and a Harvard-educated former diplomat — is seen as the public’s favorite, though the law for now bars her from becoming an empress, despite being in a direct line of descent.

Japan’s conservative government wants to keep the royal succession male-only, without relying on women, though it is looking for a way to allow women to keep royal status if they marry commoners and serve in royal duties.

In his childhood, Hisahito showed an avid interest in insects and plans to study biology at the Tsukuba University near Tokyo, starting in April. He hopes to focus his studies on dragonflies, a species that has captivated him.

Apart from researching dragonflies and other insects, Hisahito told reporters he is also interested in studying ways to protect insect populations in urban areas. His other interests lie in growing tomatoes and rice on the palace compound.

Because Japanese royals have to stay away from politics, members of the Imperial Family tend to study biology, literature and arts. Naruhito’s specialty is water transport while his father, Emperor Emeritus Akihito who abdicated in 2019, researches fish. Hisahito’s father, Crown Prince Akishino, is an expert of chickens.

Japan will hold a coming-of-age palace ceremony for Hisahito on September 6, his 19th birthday.

Dozens of construction workers have been pulled alive from metal containers after they were trapped by a deadly Himalayan avalanche for around 36 hours, according to authorities in northern India.

The Indian Army launched a rescue operation after heavy snowfall triggered the avalanche last Friday near a construction site in the village of Mana, Uttarakhand state, about 10,500 feet (3,200 meters) above sea level.

Some 46 workers survived inside the containers, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Indian Army said. Eight workers were killed, officials said.

Many of those rescued were migrant laborers constructing a highway in the remote region, according to local authorities.

The decision likely saved many lives, he said.

“The containers… kept people safe and in fact made the rescue efforts easier because to find a body buried under such dense snow is much harder than finding a large container,” he said.

Photos posted to an Indian Army X account showed soldiers with sniffer dogs surrounding partially crushed metal containers in deep snow.

“Whoever could be taken out immediately was taken out … we got full support,” one unnamed survivor said from his hospital bed in a video attached to the post.

Avalanches and landslides are common in the Himalayas, especially during winter. But the human-induced climate crisis is making extreme weather events more severe and increasingly unpredictable.

Glaciers in the Himalayas melted 65% faster in the 2010s compared with the previous decade, which suggests rising temperatures are already having an impact in the area, according to a 2023 report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.

The erosion of glacial slopes also heightens the likelihood of floods, landslides and avalanches, increasing the risk to millions living in mountain communities.

In 2021, more than 200 people died after part of a glacier collapsed in Uttarakhand, carrying a deadly mixture of ice, rock and water that tore through a mountain gorge and crashed through a dam.