This year, Japan entered a new era – now officially named the Reiwa Era – when Emperor Akihito relinquished the throne to his eldest son Naruhito.
The Japanese monarchy's role may be symbolic, but it is not meaningless, says Dr Penelope Shino, Lecturer in Japanese at Massey University.
She speaks to Bryan Crump about what the Reiwa Era means for Japan.
A woman waves Japan's national flag during Japan's new Emperor Naruhito's public appearance at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 4, 2019. Photo: Koki Kataoka / Yomiuri / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Penelope Shino: "It seems as if the people who adopted the new era name would like to see Japan now relaxing into itself a little bit more"
“The real reason [Akihito abdicated] was he simply realised he was getting to be quite an old man,” Shino says.
In his mid-80s, Akihito was conscientious about performing his role and felt physically he wasn’t able to keep up with it.
“He didn’t explicitly say ‘I wish to abdicate’ at least in public anyway, but he gave a very unusual television broadcast where he expressed his concerns about his increasing years and where he would be able to do his job properly or not and that was interpreted to mean that he wished to abdicate.”
Akihito gave that interview three years ago and was encouraged to stay on until recently, she says.
“He’s not permitted by the constitution to have any political opinion or express a political opinion at all and the succession laws in Japan and rules about abdication are set in the constitution.”
Akihito’s abdication is the first since early in the 19th Century.
“Before that, it was possible for an emperor to abdicate and there had been several abdications. What tended to happen in Medieval times was that the Emperor would step down when he was still very young, so he’d become Emperor when he was young, maybe 15 or 16 and as soon as he was looking like he was developing some political savvy he’d be compelled to abdicate by various factions in the court.”
The perpetual junior emperors allowed powerful court families to manipulate him, Shino says.
In 1868, when Japan modernised and opened its borders, it tried to match Western military powers and a new constitution was introduced, closely modelled on the German one. Abdication was no longer seen as appropriate.
Akihito had to hint at his wish to abdicate because explicitly speaking this wishes would be seen as a political act, she says.
"There is no provision made for it in fact, so for it to happen the government had to pass a special one-off law.
“As soon as his wishes were clear, the government had to do something and did move quite quickly in fact to able the abdication."
The former emperor and his eldest son both come across as mild-mannered and gentle people, Shino says, although Naruhito seems to be much more connected to the world at large, having travelled extensively: “There seems to be an expectation that he will be much more of a jet setter.”
Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako attend a reception of the tree-planting ceremony in Nagoya City, Aichi prefecture on June 1, 2019. Photo: Kaoru Tachibana / Yomiuri / The Yomiuri Shimbun
“The Japanese people were very, very sympathetic of the Emperor. In comparison with Queen Elizabeth, he’s a mere spring chicken because the Queen, of course, is 93 or 94…the public realised that this was actually a heartfelt plea for him to be able to have some years where he can just be himself and not be the symbol of the people.”
The Emperor is the high priest of the Shinto religion of Japan and is required to perform certain rituals, she says.
“I think it must be quite an onerous position and he obviously has a very deep sense of responsibility and I think he felt he couldn’t really keep up with that as he got older and older.”
Japan is now in the Reiwa Era, which has a lot of different interpretations, Shino says.
“One of the meanings of ‘wa’ is 'harmony' but also 'Japan'… it seems as if the people who adopted the new era name would like to see Japan now relaxing into itself a little bit more, into its own identity as a Japanese nation and this ties in quite closely with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s nationalism.”
The emperor doesn’t have a say in the new era's name, he is merely told the name after the government makes its choice, guided by scholars.
Shinzō Abe’s interpretation of it is not only ‘beautiful peace’ but coming together as a nation and cultivating the spirit of being Japan.
Some people are worried that this means a more militaristic Japan, Shino says.
“People may have fear that could be the direction Japan is moving, I think that’s highly unlikely. The Japanese public themselves, apart from a very select group of militant ultra-nationalists, are very much committed to the peace constitution.”
Photo: AFP