Japan’s Farewell to the People’s Emperor

The emperor of Japan has no formal political authority according to the constitution, and there is a strong consensus among Japanese that the emperor must not be involved in politics. But the red line separating the political from the apolitical can be amorphous. It is not so easy for a walking, talking, national symbol to remain passive. Throughout his reign, Emperor Akihito (b. 1933; r. 1989-2019; now officially known in Japan as the Emperor Emeritus) had subtle ways of lending his support to certain causes while distancing himself from others. And Empress Michiko (b. 1934) was almost always at his side reinforcing the message through her own remarkable skills in communication, and her dynamic example suggested that a woman could play the role of Japan’s national symbol.

Five themes characterized the Heisei era, which concluded with Emperor Akihito’s abdication on April 30 of this year: (1) An unabashed support of the post-war system, including the values inherent in the post-war constitution; (2) efforts to compress the margins of society by reaching out to the most vulnerable members, and also by extending a hand to others marginalized by geography and other factors; (3) efforts to bring closure to the post-war era by trying to heal the festering wounds of the war and of the imperial era in a more general sense; (4) demonstrations of pride in the best that Japan has to offer, but a pride in Japan tempered with a cosmopolitanism that clashed with simplistic nationalism, including in reference to views of Japan’s history; and (5) the unusually active and important role played by Empress Michiko.

Although claims by some Americans who served in the Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) of having “introduced democracy” to the country after World War II are thoroughly exaggerated, it is nonetheless true that post-war Japan differs in fundamental ways from Imperial Japan (1890-1945). Democracy and pacifism filled the post-defeat vacuum, as did a desire to restore Japan’s international standing. These post-war values have been on display during the reign of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.

Emperor Akihito began his reign in January 1989 with a ringing endorsement of the Japanese Constitution, whose values include peace, democracy, and internationalism. In fact, in a way that may be specific to Japan, many Japanese define democracy as including peace. Individuals in other liberal democracies from the United States to France typically do not make peace a building block for democracy, but many Japanese came to do so in the post-war era. It is important for outside observers of Japan to grasp this in order to understand why Japanese think the stakes are so high in reference to whether Article 9 of the constitution, the famous no-war clause, should be maintained or revised.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko made no secret, throughout their reign, of how strongly they endorsed the post-war system. Their support for democracy was evidenced by their relaxed style and their efforts to mix with the people. For example, when the Showa Emperor (b. 1901; r. 1926-1989; known by many outside Japan as Hirohito) was ready to make public remarks, a chamberlain would ceremoniously hand him the prepared statement to read. In contrast, Emperor Akihito retrieved his prepared remarks from his pocket. The democratic style of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko was especially on display when they visited countrymen who had suffered the effects of natural disasters (one unfortunate aspect of the Heisei era was the many natural disasters that Japan experienced). The emperor and empress knelt at the same eye level of the countrymen they were comforting and encouraging, something that the previous emperor and empress never would have felt comfortable doing.

It is important to understand that as some monarchies evolved in the modern era away from ruling to reigning within a democratic polity, their functions have changed, too. According to renowned historian of Great Britain David Cannadine, the term “peripatetic” describes well the contemporary British royal family. In his essay “Monarchy: Crowns and Contexts, Thrones and Dominations,” he stresses how this is a contemporary development: “But the practice whereby, on any given weekday, many members of the royal family will be found undertaking public duties in town and cities across the length and breadth of the country is a relatively recent development, and it seems likely that it is connected with the near-simultaneous extension of the franchise.”

“Peripatetic” is a term that also could be used to describe Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, and Japan’s imperial family in general. In his opening address at the ceremony to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Emperor Akihito’s accession to the throne, parliamentarian Hiranuma Takeo noted with precise statistics just how widely Emperor Akihito had travelled the country: “Up until Heisei 19 (2008) His Majesty has made 180 regional visits, including to each of the 47 prefectures and including remote islands, he has visited 514 cities, towns, and villages, and has been welcomed by 7,700,000 people. He is the first emperor to have visited all the country’s prefectures.”

Many of these regional trips were devised so that Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko could lend their social prestige to the most vulnerable members of Japanese society, individuals with disabilities for example, in order to compress the margins of Japan’s society. Leaders of associations of disabled individuals credit the emperor and empress with having fundamentally helped improve the lives of the handicapped by drawing attention to issues such as accessibility. Far from being above the clouds like its pre-1945 antecedent, today’s imperial house is among the people, including among those who could most use a helping hand.

Emperor Akihito is renowned as a man of peace, and his commitment to avoiding war goes far beyond simplistic rhetoric. Emperor Akihito undertook a comprehensive campaign not only to remind his countrymen of the horrors of the war, but also to bluntly inform them that Japan bears responsibility for the considerable suffering that it inflicted on others, most notably on its Asian neighbors. At times, he has almost come across as a professor of history offering lessons about the past to his countrymen.

The imperial house remains Japan’s most important nationalistic symbol, and yet Emperor Akihito has repeatedly and pointedly rejected “Japan First”-style nationalism in favor of cosmopolitanism. This stance is best represented by the famous history lesson he delivered at a press conference on his birthday (December 23) in 2001, in advance of Japan and Korea cohosting the 2002 World Cup (emphasis added by author):

That the people of Korea and Japan have from ages past had deep interchange is recorded in detail in the Nihon Shoki [Chronicles of Japan, compiled in 720], among other historical records. Those who immigrated or were invited to come to Japan from Korea introduced culture and technology. Of the musicians in the Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency, some are direct descendants of musicians who came over to Japan from Korea at that time, and have inherited the music for generations and still perform the Gagaku [Imperial Court Music] on various occasions. It was truly fortunate that such culture and technology was brought to Japan through the enthusiasm of Japanese people and the friendly attitude of the Korean people. I also believe that it contributed greatly to Japan’s subsequent development. I, on my part, feel a certain kinship with Korea, given the fact that it is recorded in the Shoku Nihongi [Chronicles of Japan, compiled in 797], that the mother of Emperor Kammu [reign 781-806] was of the line of King Muryong [reign 501-523] of the Kingdom of Paekche. King Muryong had strong relations with Japan, and it was from his time that masters of the Five Chinese Classics [books compiling the teaching of Confucianism] were invited to Japan one after another to teach Confucianism. King Song Myong [reign 523-554], son of King Muryong, is recognized as the one who introduced Buddhism to Japan.

It is regrettable however that Japan’s exchanges with Korea have not all been of this kind. This is something that we should never forget.

This tutorial is all the more powerful if one understands how spurious notions of a “pure Japanese race” centered on the imperial house were misused in modern Japan, how Japan exploited Korea in the modern period (including, perhaps most infamously, with regard to the so-called “comfort women”), and how this mistreatment was justified according to a racial hierarchy that placed Japanese above Koreans.

The above statement came 11 years after Emperor Akihito, during a state banquet hosting South Korea’s head of state, formally apologized for Japan’s exploitation of Korea during the modern era. This 1990 apology was the first indication of how much of his reign Emperor Akihito would devote to trying to bring closure to the post-war era, to working hard to heal the wounds of the war and of the era of imperialism in general. Emperor Akihito’s efforts in this area have resulted in numerous moving scenes of he and the empress praying for the war dead (from all sides) not only at various symbolic spots in Japan, but also at places outside of Japan where fierce battles took place, including Saipan and Palau.

Although self-appointed far right protectors of the throne would never admit this publicly, they were well aware that Emperor Akihito was not on their side. Through his resolute cosmopolitanism, Emperor Akihito may well have played a role in restraining in Japan the rise of forms of populism presently plaguing Europe and the Americas. There are, of course, other factors that explain why thus far Japan has escaped such populism, including that its middle class has held up better than others and also that, frankly, Japan has not accepted immigrants that have produced the sort of nativist reactions underlying populist spasms elsewhere. Nonetheless, the emperor has refused to lend his prestige to even the slightest hint of nativism (quiet pride in the good aspects of Japan was okay, however), and his role in this area served as a brake against distasteful populism.

However surprising the following may be to some admirers of Emperor Akihito’s support for various progressive causes, it is almost surely the case that Emperor Akihito considers his greatest legacy to be having continued the imperial line, and to have abdicated at a time when he and his wife and the institution in general enjoyed overwhelming support from the people. If it seems strange that someone like Emperor Akihito with progressive tendencies might also be a resolute supporter of the imperial line, one has to step back and remember how difficult it would have been for him to perform his role if he did not believe that the imperial institution had, and continues to have, value. After all, professors tend to believe that universities, for all their warts, are forces for good, and journalists tend to believe that the media, for all its foibles, is necessary for a healthy society.

There is no question that the imperial house remains imperfect. For example, the Imperial Household Law continues to permit only males to occupy the throne. This is increasingly anachronistic in light of the remarkable public role played by Empress Michiko these past three decades, not to mention at a time when gender equality is becoming a global standard. Historians like myself hesitate to predict the future, but I suspect change is coming in this area, driven perhaps more by the fact that the imperial house may well face extinction (there is only one boy, Prince Hisahito, born in 2006, among the current generation of imperial children) if women are not permitted to serve on the throne than by the desire of Japanese to be in tune with global standards. Change is likely coming all the same.

In terms of Japan’s basic policies, however, there will be zero changes undertaken by the present Abe administration as a result of Japan having a new emperor. That simply is not how Japan works. Nonetheless, over time the new emperor, as his father did, will put his stamp both on the throne and on Japanese society. He has foreshadowed some of the contours of where he will take the throne. Emperor Naruhito repeatedly referenced three themes in public remarks in the years after his father announced his intention to abdicate. First, he stressed that it has always been the case that as Japan’s society changed, so too did the imperial house, to stay in tune with society. What this means is that although we should expect that there will be numerous continuities with the previous reign, we should not expect it to be a carbon copy.

Second, Naruhito has referenced the challenge he faces in working to maintain and forge unity out of nation that is diversifying, both because the people already in Japan are diversifying their lifestyles (e.g., Japan has an emerging LGBTQ movement), and also because Japan is starting to accept immigrants. In a basic sense, the “symbolic monarchies” that exist in liberal democracies play a centripetal role, and Emperor Naruhito seems to understand that he will have to exert himself all the more to maintain a unified national community in the face of various centrifugal forces. He has stressed the need for tolerance repeatedly.

Here is one example of how the new emperor could lend his considerable prestige to newcomers to Japan, reminding his countrymen of the need for benevolence and tolerance. More and more K-12 schools in Japan are offering Japanese as a Second Language Programs to provide for the needs of children of recent immigrants. If Emperor Naruhito were to visit one of these classrooms, the message asking for tolerance and benevolence would be utterly clear to fellow Japanese.

Third, Emperor Naruhito has made clear his intention to continue to devote time to the issue of water. Japan does not lack for clean water, and frankly many Japanese (and perhaps people in other developed countries) are puzzled about why Emperor Naruhito is so adamant about this issue. It is because he is well aware that for more than 1 billion individuals worldwide, accessing clean water is a daily struggle. This will be an interesting new departure for Japan’s imperial house. Whereas Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko spent much of the Heisei era lending their prestige to the most vulnerable members of Japanese society, the new emperor seems intent on lending his prestige to the neediest members of global society as well. Emperor Naruhito presumably hopes that by drawing attention to the issue of water, he can play a role in remedying this problem. There is little question that he believes that Japan, as a prosperous and peaceful country, has a responsibility to do what it can to help improve the lives of individuals in areas of the world that are less developed or which are experiencing strife.

Of course, there are limits to how much any new emperor can choreograph his reign in advance. Emperor Naruhito will undoubtedly be faced with responding to new challenges as they arise, similar to politicians, bureaucrats, and indeed average citizens worldwide.