UPDATES TO EDIT SPACING
By Todd Crowell
TOKYO (AA) – All Japan came to a halt mid-day Monday as people gathered before outsized outdoor televisions and huddled in front of screens in the home and office to hear their emperor speak.
It was only the third time in Japanese history that a monarch had broadcast a speech directly to the Japanese people. The first was in 1945 when Emperor Hirohito called on the country to accept the terms of surrender in World War II.
Monday’s subject was Akihito’s advancing age, growing ill-health and his desire to hand over the public burdens of the monarchy to his son and successor Crown Prince Naruhito, now 56.
“I am already more than 80 and unfortunately I am not in the good health,” he said from the palace, noting that he had had two operations in recent years.
“I am worried it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of state as I have done until now,” he said.
Under the American-written constitution the emperor is specifically called the “symbol of the unity of the state”.
The emperor’s public duties are very constrained under the post-war charter but are still sufficient to keep him very busy.
According to the Imperial Household Agency, Akihito takes part in about 250 public meetings and 75 trips both at home and abroad a year.
Of course, it had been rumored for several weeks that Akihito wished to abdicate his position in a few years as his health continues to deteriorate and his energy for taking on projects slowly diminishes.
The difficulty is that the Imperial Household law, which governs the emperor’s itinerary, has no provision for an imperial abdication.
Emperors are expected serve until death.
Any change would require parliament to amend the law.
On Monday, Akihito made no direct appeal to change the household law. To do so would be construed as interfering in Japan’s politics, which is severely proscribed by the constitution.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the man who would initiate any change in the law if there were to be one, spoke briefly after the emperor’s address. He reserved himself to expressions of sympathy but said nothing on the issue of abdication.
The government is said to be drafting a more detailed response to the speech.
While such an amendment might seem pretty straight forward, it could get sticky if, as some fear, it gets entangled with a debate on whether women can become reigning empresses and not just consorts.
That issue was acute a few years ago, when it looked like Japan was going to run out of princes to succeed emperors after death. Reluctantly the government of Junichiro Koizumi prepared a law to change the succession rule when — miracles of miracles — Princess Kiko gave birth to a boy.
The emperor coached his relative short speech as kind of musing on the subject of growing old, death and how best to serve the country. He noted that there is a year of mourning after the death of an emperor during which time little can be accomplished.
Akihito succeeded his father, the former Emperor Hirohito, in 1989. He is officially the 125th emperor in a line stretching back thousands of years.
