--- description: The Japanese Embassy in Paris waxed exceedingly indignant over a report that the death of Prince Narihisa Kitashirakawa, who was recently killed in an automobile accident in France, necessitated... title: Foreign News: Hara-Kari image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Foreign News: Hara-Kari by [TIME](/author/time/) Apr 14, 1923 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Apr 14, 1923 5:00 AM CUT The Japanese Embassy in Paris waxed exceedingly indignant over a report that the death of Prince Narihisa Kitashirakawa, who was recently killed in an automobile accident in France, necessitated some Japanese noble committing hara-kari —suicide. The late Prince was a brother-in-law of the Mikado, and, as the Councellor of the Embassy explained, the ancient rite of hara-kari is carried out by the Samurais only in the event of the death of the Mikado; lesser members of the royal family do not receive such homage. On April 29, 1909, Prince Kitashirakawa married the Mikado’s second sister, Princess Fusako. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6657372/foreign-news-hara-kari/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6657372/foreign-news-hara-kari/"},"headline":"Foreign News: Hara-Kari","datePublished":"1923-04-14T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T19:47:57.276Z","description":"The Japanese Embassy in Paris waxed exceedingly indignant over a report that the death of Prince Narihisa Kitashirakawa, who was recently killed in an automobile accident in France, necessitated...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6657372/foreign-news-hara-kari/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6657372/foreign-news-hara-kari/","name":"Foreign News: Hara-Kari"}}]}] ```