TOKYO — Five months after Emperor Akihito of Japan
expressed his wish to retire, a government-appointed panel tacitly recommended
on Monday that Parliament enact special legislation that would allow him to
abdicate.In its report, the six-member panel outlined the benefits and
drawbacks of more permanent changes to the law governing the reigns of future
emperors, but it ultimately signaled that a one-time provision would be
preferable.
“This is an extremely serious issue for the
fundamentals of this nation and its long history as well as its future,” Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe said after receiving the report. “So we have to thoroughly
discuss it. I expect people’s understanding will be further deepened by the
release of the discussion points.”The Liberal Democratic Party, Mr. Abe’s
governing party, is expected to introduce a bill proposing a measure applying
only to Emperor Akihito in Parliament in April.
Why does
Parliament need to pass a law for the emperor to retire?
The Constitution designates the
emperor, who was once revered as a god, as a symbol of the unity of the
Japanese people. Although the Constitution outlines the emperor’s mostly
ceremonial responsibilities — including officially appointing the prime
minister, convening Parliament and receiving ambassadors — it leaves matters of
succession to an Imperial Household Law passed by Parliament. The
Constitution makes no mention of abdication, and no emperor has stepped down
since Emperor Kokaku in 1817. The current Imperial Household Law has been in
place since 1947.
Why does Emperor
Akihito want to retire?
He is old, and he is tired. At 83, he is
having trouble keeping up with his rigorous schedule of travel across Japan and
internationally. Just last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that
Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, would visit Vietnam and
Thailand next month. “When I consider that my fitness level is gradually
declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my
duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until
now,” Emperor Akihito said in his video address to the nation in August.
The current emperor also witnessed the slow
deterioration of his own father, Emperor Hirohito, who died in 1989, and presumably
wants to spare his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, 56, that period of limbo.According
to polls by the Japanese news media, public opinion is strongly on the
emperor’s side.
Why doesn’t the
government want to consider a more substantial, and permanent, revision to the
law?
Given the emperor’s age and health — he has
been treated for prostate cancer and underwent heart surgery five years ago —
the government is concerned that a permanent overhaul of the succession law
would take too long and might not be completed in time for Emperor Akihito to
abdicate before his death. Prime Minister Abe and his party are conservatives
who are generally loath to change the Imperial Household Law, which retains
elements that date from the Meiji era, in the 19th century. They worry that
allowing future emperors to abdicate during their lifetimes might destabilize
the monarchy or subject future emperors to political persuasion.
Conservatives also do not want to open up the
law to further revisions, including the admission of female heirs to the
throne. “The Imperial Household Law limits succession of the throne through the
male blood line,” said Takeshi Hara, a professor of modern history of Japanese
politics and expert on the imperial system at the Open University of Japan. Conservatives,
he said, “don’t want to change that.” The main opposition in Parliament, the
Democratic Party, favors a permanent revision of the law to allow emperors to
abdicate as long as their heirs have reached adulthood, and to allow women to
take the throne.
Why is the emperor
so important in Japan?
Although the emperor is no longer regarded as
a god, he is enormously respected as a symbol of national unity. Emperor
Akihito is also personally popular because he and Empress Michiko have served
as the nation’s consolers in chief. After the earthquake and tsunami in
2011, the emperor appeared on television for the first time to urge people to
“treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times.” The
emperor and empress have since traveled extensively to meet with people in the
disaster-stricken areas.
“This is the person who speaks for the
Japanese people in times of distress,” said Sheila A. Smith, a Japan expert at
the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s not the elected officials or the
prime ministers of the day that the Japanese people really look to in the
moments when they are in trouble.”
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