Royal household says shock reports are ‘not true’ as country grapples with idea of beloved monarch stepping aside to make way for son

Uncertainty is swirling around the immediate future of Japan’s monarchy, as palace officials dismissed media reports that Akihito will become the first emperor in two centuries to abdicate.

The imperial household agency, the rarefied body that oversees the country’s 2,600-year-old monarchy, was forced to issue strong denials on Thursday that the octogenarian Akihito, who has battled cancer, would relinquish his title to make way for his son, crown prince Naruhito, rather than cut back on his official duties.

“I know there are media reports about this, but it is absolutely not true,” the agency’s vice grand steward, Shinichiro Yamamoto, told reporters. He added that Akihito “has long refrained from discussing systematic issues out of consideration for his majesty’s constitutional position”.

The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, declined to comment on the emperor’s future.

Palace observers said NHK and Kyodo News were unlikely to have run the story unless it had come from impeccable sources inside the palace. The claims were lent more weight after the Yomiuri Shimbun, a conservative broadsheet with close ties to official sources, said the government had been secretly reviewing a possible abdication in light of Akihito’s age and the state of his health.

The public broadcaster NHK and other local media reported on Wednesday night that Akihito, 82, had told his wife, empress Michiko, their younger son Akishino, and Naruhito of his intention to abdicate, although he is not thought to have said when.

NHK quoted government officials as saying that he would make a public announcement soon.

His departure would be unprecedented in modern Japan, whose male monarchs have come to be seen as symbols of national unity and stability amid domestic political turmoil and conflicts overseas.

The last Japanese monarch to abdicate was Kokaku, who gave up the chrysanthemum throne in 1817.



For Akihito to do the same would require a change to the imperial household law, which does not contain a provision for living succession.

Akihito, who has been on the throne for 28 years, is as close as Japan has come to a modernising emperor. He is the first to marry a commoner, Michiko Shoda, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, whom he met on a tennis court.

As the oldest son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, Akihito has not shied away from commenting on Japan’s actions during the second world war – a conflict fought in his father’s name.

He has spent much of his time on the throne trying to promote reconciliation between Japan and its former enemies. He has often expressed remorse for Japan’s actions on the Asian mainland, and infuriated nationalists when he recognised the imperial family’s Korean roots.

In 1992, Akihito became the first Japanese monarch to visit China, where he acknowledged that Japan had “inflicted great suffering” before and during the war. He and Michiko have paid their respects to the war dead during several trips to former battlefields overseas, including Saipan and Palau.

In a speech last year to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Akihito voiced “deep remorse” over the suffering Japan had inflicted – comments that some interpreted as a mild rebuke directed at Abe. “Looking back at the past, together with deep remorse over the war, I pray that this tragedy of war will not be repeated and together with the people express my deep condolences for those who fell in battle and in the ravages of war,” he said.

Abe spoke of his “utmost grief” over Japan’s wartime conduct but said future generations of Japanese should not have to keep apologising for the mistakes of the past.



While stripped of his divine status, it is hard to overstate Akihito’s symbolic importance, particularly in times of national crisis. In March 2011, days after Japan’s north-east coast was hit by a deadly tsunami and a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, Akihito made a rare public address in which he said he was “deeply hurt” by the loss of life.

“I hope from the bottom of my heart that the people will, hand in hand, treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times,” he said.

Akihito “was the first postwar emperor to embrace the [pacifist] constitution and his role as a symbol of national unity”, said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo. “He cares a great deal about war issues and reconciliation [with Asian countries]. Naruhito has made clear that he will carry on with that.”

While Hirohito was considered by his subjects to be a living god until his quasi-divine status was removed after Japan’s defeat, his son has attempted to weaken some of the mystique surrounding the imperial household.

It is his determination, despite poor health, to meet ordinary Japanese during hundreds of annual public engagements that many believe is responsible for the apparent decision to end his reign while he is still alive.

Akihito had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and a heart bypass operation in 2012, and was in hospital with pneumonia in 2011. In an apparent reference to his deteriorating health, he hinted late last year that his ceremonial duties were becoming increasingly difficult to carry out. Last year alone he performed 270 official duties, including meetings with dignitaries from overseas.

Last December, on his 82nd birthday, Akihito admitted to having made “some mistakes” during ceremonies and that he felt his age “more often”. In a sign that his punishing schedule was becoming a burden, he recently cut back on his public duties.

Observers said a premature end to the Akihito’s reign would leave a huge hole in Japanese public life. “This would be huge because Akihito is enormously popular with the public,” Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University, told Bloomberg. “He is a voice of reconciliation and looks at dealing with the lingering grievances from world war II as his father’s unfinished business.

“He has done more than all of Japan’s politicians put together in terms of raising Japan’s stature in the region - he is known as the people’s emperor.”

Under the US-authored constitution, Japan’s emperor is no longer a living deity but is instead regarded as “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people”.

Attention has inevitably turned to Akihito’s successor, Naruhito, the Oxford-educated crown prince, who wrote his thesis on the history of transportation on the river Thames. The 56-year-old is married to crown princess Masako, who has rarely been seen in public since being diagnosed with a stress-related disorder more than 10 years ago.

Naruhito caused a minor scandal in 2004 when he suggested that pressure to conform to the rules of palace life had contributed to his wife’s illness.

Even as the palace denied the reports, there was speculation that Akihito’s abdication could revive a national debate over the succession laws.

Under the current male-only succession law, Naruhito’s only child, 14-year-old princess Aiko, cannot ascend the throne. The next in line after Naruhito is his brother, Akishino, followed by his nine-year-old son, Hisahito.