Age and deteriorating health meant that he was finding it hard to continue his role, the 82-year-old emperor said. In a 10 minute pre-recorded message, the 82 year-old Emperor reflected upon his years on the throne, and spoke about how his age and health issues are making it hard for him to fulfill his royal duties.
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If Japanese parliament changes the law to permit Akihito’s abdication, he would become the first emperor in two centuries to leave the throne.
Japan’s emperor expressed concern Monday about fulfilling his duties as he ages, in a public address that was remarkable for its rarity and its suggestion that he would like to abdicate.
It is written in law that the Emperor continues until death. “It is conceivable that a regent could be appointed”, he said.
For an abdication, existing laws would need to be changed – a requirement Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative party opposes.
“When the Emperor has ill health and his condition becomes serious, I am concerned that, as we have seen in the past, society comes to a standstill and people’s lives are impacted in various ways”.
Pedestrians in Tokyo watch as Emperor Akihito speaks to the nation.
Akihito has been emperor since the death of his father, Hirohito, in 1989.
In an extraordinary televised address on Monday, Emperor Akihito told the Japanese people that he wants to step down from the Chrysanthemum Throne, which his family has held for nearly 2,700 years.
Any eventual move by Akihito to step down appears to have wide public support.
Kingston noted that the speech was also interesting because Akihito spoke “as a citizen baring his soul and sharing his anguish about not being able to fulfill his duties as symbol of state”. In 2012, he underwent heart surgery, an experience he alluded to in the address.
Public broadcaster NHK reported last month that Akihito wanted to step down within the next few years.
Japan’s Emperor Akihito has said he fears age and deteriorating health mean he is finding it hard to continue in his role.
Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito may be heir to one of the world’s oldest monarchies, but he is not shy about knocking the institution he represents or his country’s warring past. Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Peleliu in 2015 and laid wreaths at separate memorials to American and Japanese soldiers who died in vicious fighting there in late 1944.
He is said to strongly believe that the emperor’s fulfillment of his ceremonial duties is a necessary enactment of his constitutional role. But more than 100 of those meetings per year will now be canceled or reassigned to the crown prince.
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Opinion polls show that the vast majority of ordinary Japanese people sympathize with the emperor’s desire to retire.
