Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the formal enthronement of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito of Japan on November 12, 1990. Crowds estimated in the tens of thousands turned out to cheer their best wishes on the 20th anniversary of their Emperor along with parades, parties and speeches by various dignitaries. The Prime Minister introduced the Emperor and Empress and led the crowd in three rousing cheers of "Banzai!" to the Imperial couple. 50,000 converged on the Imperial Palace for a lantern-light ceremony and concert for the Emperor in a touching tribute to the strong loyalty and devotion that still binds the Japanese people to their Emperor and ancient monarchy. It is fitting to remember how successful Japan has been over the years in being at the same time modern and forward-thinking while always maintaining respect for their culture and traditions and the timeless institutions that unite them. The Mad Monarchist joins all the Japanese people in congratulating His Imperial Majesty on his 20th anniversary and wishing the Emperor many more years to reign over the island nation of the Rising Sun. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!
Friday, November 13, 2009
20 Years for the Emperor of Japan!
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the formal enthronement of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito of Japan on November 12, 1990. Crowds estimated in the tens of thousands turned out to cheer their best wishes on the 20th anniversary of their Emperor along with parades, parties and speeches by various dignitaries. The Prime Minister introduced the Emperor and Empress and led the crowd in three rousing cheers of "Banzai!" to the Imperial couple. 50,000 converged on the Imperial Palace for a lantern-light ceremony and concert for the Emperor in a touching tribute to the strong loyalty and devotion that still binds the Japanese people to their Emperor and ancient monarchy. It is fitting to remember how successful Japan has been over the years in being at the same time modern and forward-thinking while always maintaining respect for their culture and traditions and the timeless institutions that unite them. The Mad Monarchist joins all the Japanese people in congratulating His Imperial Majesty on his 20th anniversary and wishing the Emperor many more years to reign over the island nation of the Rising Sun. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!
Banzai Indeed! May God preserve his Excellency!
ReplyDeleteOn an aside, did htye ever settle the succession crisis? The Emperor hasno son. I would like to see them allow his Daughter to succeed him in this case. Or am I misremembering?
You are a tad bit off the mark, though it's no surprise considering the way the whole situation was over-dramatized in my opinion. The Emperor does have a son (2 in fact) and heir, His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito. However, he has only a daughter, Princess Aiko, and had trouble in producing her. However, the questions over the succession became a rather dead issue when the Emperor's second son Prince Fumihito and his wife had a baby boy, the little Prince Hisahito who, as things stand now, will become Emperor of Japan some time in the far off future. There is considerable popular support for allowing female succession, though my only question with this would be how it would work considering the role of the Emperor as the high-priest of the Shinto religion. In any event, as things stand now it is not a pressing issue, and I don't think was ever all *that* pressing to begin with just in my view.
ReplyDeleteI apologise for the error. Asian Monarchs where never really my strong suit, and I do need to learn more about that region of the world.
ReplyDeleteInfo on them is generally hard to come by in this part of the world -usually extremely biased when it does show up and in the case of Japan almost always deals exclusively with the Showa era. However, I have an interest and connections to the Far East so you will find regular posts here about Asian monarchies past and present.
ReplyDeleteOne gathers that there is not much of a republican movement in Japan (or in Thailand, for that matter).
ReplyDeleteDo you happen to know if Japanese law has anything like the Thai Government's pretty fierce legislation which punishes insulting remarks about the sovereign? Or is the Japanese case more of a matter of the monarch being generally accepted, rather than having his reputation vigilantly protected by statute?
Republicanism in Thailand would be unthinkable, in Japan I have heard it discussed but not much and very academically. I don't think there are any lese-majeste laws in Japan. Even in Thailand I would warn visitors that if you decide to slander the King in public the law will not be your biggest worry -you would probably end up wishing for the police to show up to stop your lynching! In Japan I think it's more a matter of something that's just 'not done'. It would be considered extremely rude, in very poor taste to speak ill of the Emperor. He's really not talked about that much whenever the Emperor or Imperial Family is discussed on the news it is almost always done in a very formal and respectful tone.
ReplyDeleteWhat I see as the biggest problem in Japan, rather than outright republicanism, is the way anything associated with Japanese patriotism (much of which is connected to the Emperor in some form or fashion) is often vilified as being nationalistic and somehow a throw-back to WW2 militarism. There have been protests in Japan against even the singing of the national anthem. Thankfully though, from what I've seen, these spats seem to be the exception rather than the rule -probably their being reported on simply displays the bias of most elite media today.
Interesting comments, sir, about Japanese patriotism and the vilification thereof.
ReplyDeleteMy impression (not that I've ever visited the country, I merely go by what the Anglo world's newspapers tell me) is that even today, Japanese patriots are pretty good at "pushing the envelope". They don't seem to be nearly as given to self-flagellation about their non-democratic 20th-century past as, say, the Spaniards and, in particular, the Germans are.
It appears to me that in public the entire political fabric of German life seems to consist of agonizing over the Hitler state. Which did, after all, last only 12 years, and which even at its most murderous killed far fewer people than Stalin and Mao.
Well, that is true to some extent. I think the Japanese have fairly acknowledged their misdeeds but many are still not satisfied and accuse them of trying to white-wash the history books. I don't see it that way myself, I just think they don't want to dwell on such events the way some others do. You will also occasionally see Japanese TV-shows or movies that take a somewhat romantic view of certain aspects of the war, which probably rubs many the wrong way but I find them very entertaining. Your comparison of Hitler & Stalin also fits well with what some (myself among them) have pointed out regarding Japan and China. The Chinese are always quick to protest against the Japanese and bring up the Nanking allegations and other events, usually in an orchestrated effort by the communist government to divert public attention from something they've bungled but the fact of the matter is that even if the Japanese are guilty of all they've been accused of they still killed far, far fewer Chinese people than the Chinese communist government itself has.
ReplyDeleteTo be on topic, sort of, I Just found an article on Akihito.
ReplyDeletehttp://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html