TOKYO, April 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Japan’s outgoing Emperor Akihito and
Empress Michiko dramatically modernised the tradition-bound monarchy,
bringing themselves closer to the public and boosting popular support for the household.
Akihito has broken new ground with everything from his decision to marry
for love to his outspoken calls for peace and expressions of regret over
Japan’s wartime role.
His approach has at times unsettled those who view the emperor as a divine
priest meant to inspire awe, but it has won him broad respect and popularity.
Born in 1933 just as Japan was embarking on its militaristic sweep across
Asia, Akihito was 11 when World War Two ended in defeat.
He inherited the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1989, becoming Japan’s 125th
emperor upon the death of his father Emperor Hirohito.
Hirohito’s rule saw aggressive expansionism by Japan that resulted in the
war’s devastation, but also the institutionalised pacifism of the post-war
constitution drafted by US occupying forces.
Hirohito was kept on the throne after the war but his status was downgraded from a semi-divine sovereign to a figurehead with no political power.
Akihito embraced that new role and quietly parted from tradition that had
kept emperors away from common people.
He was the first imperial heir to marry a commoner, Michiko Shoda, daughter of a flour magnate.
She was born in 1934 in Tokyo and attended the exclusive all-girls
Christian Sacred Heart School before studying English literature at its
university.
The two met at a tennis tournament and married in 1959 in a wedding that
fuelled a media frenzy.
She gave birth to now-Crown Prince Naruhito in 1960 but suffered a
miscarriage three years later, withdrawing from public life for a period.
Her second son, Prince Akishino, was born in 1965, and she has continued to suffer bouts of stress-related illness reportedly linked to criticism by
hardliners and tabloid gossip.
The pair have come to be known for their presence at the side of survivors
of disasters.
After the 2011 killer earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima
nuclear meltdown, Akihito made an unprecedented television address to calm a panicky public.
The public cheered the couple’s displays of compassion
and relative closeness to the people, something Naruhito has pledged to
continue.
To end his reign, Akihito again broke new ground by making a televised plea in 2016 to essentially ask the public to let him abdicate.
It prompted parliament and the government to make an exception to the
existing law, which forces emperors to serve until their deaths, so that
Naruhito could replace him. — NNN-AGENCIES
