Japan wonders whether emperor needed

Times of India New Delhi Edition - 3 Feb 2009.

Akihito’s Activities Curtailed Amid Rising Evidence Of Stress In Royal Household

Tokyo - Japan’s imperial family is confronting a sharp crisis of confidence as it searches for a meaningful role in modern Japanese society.

While still revered, the imperial family – whose headwas considered divine until 1945 – is increasingly pitied as its members struggle with their tightly constrained lives. Andwith Emperor Akihito’s reign in its twilight, many Japanese are daring to ask what has been unspeakable for centuries : Does the country really need an emperor?

Emperor Akihito ’stressed’ over successor

M&C – December 15, 2008.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito’s illness is reportedly due to him being stressed over his successor.

The emperor – who recently cancelled official engagements due to high blood pressure and a rapid pulse – has been suffering from a digestive system disorder, and his advisers believe the condition is worsened by his current troubles.

Emperor’s ills are laid to stress

Kyodo News – December 13, 2008.

Emperor Akihito has been worried over the issue of Imperial succession and “various” other matters, Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa has said, commenting on the stress attributed as the cause of the Emperor’s digestive system disorder.

The Emperor, who will turn 75 on Dec. 23, had gastric erosion and a residue of bleeding in the stomach and the duodenum deemed to have been caused by physical and psychological stress as well as age, the agency said earlier.

Japanese Royals visit Lanka Cultural Expo

Daily News of Sri Lanka – November 29, 2008.

TOKYO – Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan paid a visit to the Sri Lanka Cultural Heritage Exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum on Thursday.

Emperor awards high order to former minister

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, Paulownia Flowers.*

* Note – In 1888, Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers was established as the highest award in the Orders of the Rising Sun. However, it presently serves as a different award. The medal features rays of sunlight radiating from the rising sun, wreathed by Paulownia flowers. The attachment is also shaped into a Paulownia flower.

Swiss Info – November 3, 2008.

Japan’ s Emperor Akihito will decorate former Economics Minister Joseph Deiss with one of the highest orders he can bestow, the economics ministry said on Monday.

Sympathy turns to scepticism as courtiers whisper princess does not do her duty

Princess Masako has been seen at expensive restaurants but not royal events

The Times – October 25, 2008 – By Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo.

Japan’s Imperial Family faces a crisis of legitimacy because of growing discontent with the absence from public life of Crown Princess Masako, senior courtiers in the Imperial Palace fear.

Five years after she gave up public duties because of depression, sympathy for the Princess’s plight is giving way to scepticism about the seriousness of her condition – and to anxiety about what her continuing indisposition will mean for the monarchy when her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, succeeds to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

For the first time respectable commentators are openly discussing what was once unthinkable: the possibility of an imperial divorce.