Like his parents, Japan’s new Emperor Naruhito wants to put on people’s proximity in order to remain popular and to influence. But the conservative court office and the fragile health of his wife to limit his room for manoeuvre.
With an elaborate ceremony, Japan would be in the presence of 2000 carriers, among other things, the enthronement of the new Emperor Naruhito committed. The Emperor promised to act in accordance with the Constitution and to embody the unity of the Japanese people.
Japan’s oldest Institution enters into a new era: As the first Emperor Naruhito was breastfed by a wet nurse and grew up under the umbrella of his parents. As the first Emperor of studied Naruhito also abroad, graduated from higher studies in England and married a professional woman. The 59-Year-old jogs, climbs mountains, speaks fluent English and plays the viola. Never before has the Imperial house was as modern as today.
(Archive) Emperor Naruhito with grandfather, Hirohito and the father of Akihito (v. l. n. r.)
Loaded historical heritage
However, the long history of the Institution of the Tenno (“heavenly ruler accused”) on his shoulders. The official count according to Naruhito, the 126 is. Regent is a line of Succession be the the legends to the seventh century before Christ, dates back. The dynasty traces its origin to the Urururenkel Jimmu, the sun goddess Amaterasu. Therefore, a mirror in the Shinto Shrine of the Imperial family at the coronation as an Emblem of Amaterasu the prayer of the messenger in the possession of Naruhito.
Like his father, Akihito, the new Emperor visited the former aristocratic school, Gakushuin, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Gakushuin University, but in history. He then studied for two years at Merton College in Oxford, England economic history and dealt especially with water, because. The unfamiliar freedom abroad, far from the courtly constraints he described as a “great treasure”. So a Poster of the American actress Brooke Shields hung Naruhito on the wall, a Tutor organized a Meeting with her. “In England, I learned to think for themselves, to decide for themselves, and even things in practice,” said Naruhito upon his return.
Accession to the throne on Tuesday (22.10.2019)
The War Debt Of Japan
The new Emperor, wants to continue the populist style of his father, who distinguished himself by personal encounters with disaster victims and the socially Disadvantaged as a Comforter of the Nation and its constitutional role as a “Symbol of national unity” in a new way filled. “Concerning the Emperor system, the principle is that we share joy and pain with the people from heart to heart,” said Naruhito on his birthday in February 2019.
Like his father, he is likely to keep the memory of the Second world war and the Conscience of the Nation to embody. Akihito had never apologized for the war, his father had kindled Hirohito in Asia, because the Emperor’s law forbids him to make political statements. But he had expressed at the commemoration on the former battlefields “deep remorse and pain,” and for all the victims of war pray. Already as crown Prince Naruhito have taken a critical stance towards tendencies to the whitewashing of Japan’s wartime history, says the German historian Sven Saaler Sophia University in Tokyo. As Emperor, he could Express his views public.
However, Naruhito wants to put its own accents. The Emperor had to adjust his tasks to the change of the times and societal expectations, he argued, in the previous year 2018. “For these new requested tasks, I would like to be sincere,” said the then crown Prince. As possible topics, he mentioned the water supply, the fight against poverty, the needs of children and the Old. “On the Basis of its experience Naruhito will develop your own idea of Empire,” says Issei Nomura previously, one of his Ex-Hofmeister Palace of the crown Prince. The German Emperor expert Ernst Lokowandt expresses himself more cautiously: After a settling in will take care of Naruhito to the subject of the environment, but in his private environment nothing will change. “The Monarch is bound by tradition,” says Lokowandt.
Empress Masako
What will be the role of Empress Masako?
The unknown factor of his term, his wife Masako is. The former career civil servant at the Ministry of foreign Affairs, and a graduate of the universities of Harvard and Oxford, is different in origin, education, and cosmopolitanism its predecessor Michiko, the embodied more of the traditional image of a Japanese woman. On the diplomatic arena could engage an Empress Masako for Japan, as it was promised at the entrance to the Imperial house 26 years ago. “It will remain my life-long theme, what role do I play as a member of the Imperial family for the society,” she said after the wedding, with Naruhito.
But her ailing health could affect his term of office. Mainly because of the pressure from the Imperial family and the court office, to give birth to a male heir to the throne, she developed a “stress-related adjustment disorder,” says the official description of their disease. According to her husband’s physical Constitution varies still. He wanted to help her and support, reiterated Naruhito, who won the heart of Masako with the promise to protect you for life. Therefore, it is unclear how often Masako at his side will occur. However, this is crucial to the people to maintain proximity to the Emperor, says the historian Saaler. Finally, to write the success of the populist style of Akihito, a large part of his wife Michiko.
The contribution is an updated version of a DW article from the April 2019.