Akihito
Emperor Akihito served as Japan's head of state from 1989 until his abdication in 2019, symbolizing a bridge between Japan's ancient traditions and its modern democratic ideals. Born on December 29, 1933, Akihito was the first male heir after a series of daughters in the royal family, which alleviated concerns about the continuity of the imperial line. His education and upbringing were marked by a strict court life, yet he developed a keen interest in nature and science, particularly ichthyology. After marrying commoner Michiko Shoda in 1959—an unprecedented move for a Japanese royal—Akihito began a public life that involved extensive travel and engagement in cultural and social welfare initiatives.
During his reign, Akihito worked to address Japan’s wartime past, delivering apologies in various nations affected by Japanese occupation during World War II. His tenure also brought increased visibility of the imperial family, as he and Empress Michiko engaged directly with the public, particularly after natural disasters. Akihito's abdication in 2019, due to health concerns, marked the first time a Japanese emperor stepped down in over two centuries. His legacy is intertwined with the ongoing discussions around the role of women in the imperial succession and the changing perceptions of the monarchy in contemporary Japan.
On this Page
Akihito
Emperor of Japan (r. 1989–2019)
- Born: December 23, 1933
- Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan
By linking the ancient traditions of Japan to the modern age, Emperor Akihito, Japan’s nonpolitical head of state from 1989 to 2019, came to symbolize his nation’s commitment to democracy in the face of its militaristic past.
Early Life
The news of the birth of Akihito was the cause of great celebration among the Japanese people. Within court circles, there was considerable pressure on Emperor Hirohito and his wife, the former Princess Nagako Kuni, to have a son, as their first four children were daughters. Had a son not been born, the military might have made the lack of a male heir the official excuse to depose Hirohito, who was opposed to Japan’s increasing militarism at home and abroad. Japanese tradition demanded a continuous, unbroken line of male heirs succeeding the legendary founder of Japan’s imperial dynasty, the sun goddess Amaterasu.
The prince was named Akihito (shining pinnacle of virtue) Tsugu-no-miya (prince of the august succession and enlightened benevolence) during a name-bestowing ceremony (gomeimei shiki) on December 29, 1933. Akihito’s naming document was placed in a lacquered casket wrapped in cloth of gold and presented at the Imperial Shrine on the grounds of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace to bestow the blessings of the gods on the new prince.
For his third birthday, the crown prince was dressed in a red suit to celebrate the end of his babyhood and his wearing of white clothes. By tradition, Akihito was taken from his parents at age three and given his own separate residence in a wing of Omiya Villa, the home of his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Empress Sadako. There he was raised by court chamberlains, visiting his parents on weekends, when they shared dinners together. In 1940, Crown Prince Akihito entered Gakushuin, or Peers School, continuing the educational tradition of previous Japanese emperors. During the Allied bombings of Japan during World War II, Akihito was taken to the mountains for safety. When the war was over, Akihito witnessed the devastation of war firsthand when he returned to Tokyo and saw his former residence reduced to ashes on the Imperial Palace grounds.
The 1945 Japanese surrender and Hirohito’s renunciation of his divinity coincided with a proposal by Prince Higashikuni, Hirohito’s cousin, that the emperor abdicate in favor of the twelve-year-old crown prince, with Hirohito’s oldest brother, Prince Chichibu, as regent. The proposal did not gain widespread support, largely because General Douglas MacArthur respected the emperor and preferred keeping him on the throne.
Akihito’s education continued after the war in the reorganized Gakushuin Junior High and Senior High Schools at Koganei Palace. In a letter written by Empress Nagako to her son dated August 30, 1945, the empress urged Akihito to study hard and endure the unendurable without making mistakes to establish a great nation and to turn bad luck into good. During the Allied occupation, Akihito was reportedly rebuked by his father because he had developed a fondness for Spam and Hershey Bars. Hirohito admonished his son to live like his people and share their privations, which included a diet of plain brown rice and an occasional sweet potato.
The decision to hire Elizabeth Gray Vining, an American Quaker, to teach Akihito English was entirely the emperor’s. Akihito’s young life was frequently characterized as lonely. He was expected to keep his grief, anguish, and fears to himself. Vining’s task was to expand the crown prince’s contacts with other boys his age, which she did by including in the tutoring sessions the sons of selected officials or former nobles as well as Akihito’s younger brother, Prince Masahito. In addition to teaching Akihito English, Vining also helped Akihito understand Western culture and democracy. In 1951, Akihito finished his high school curriculum and entered the political and economics department at Gakushuin University. On November 10, 1952, Akihito was formally declared of age and kotaishi, imperial heir. He received the crown of adulthood and promised the emperor to be ever conscious of his station, cultivate virtue, and carry knowledge into new fields. Akihito was also ready to begin the search for a wife.
Life’s Work
After World War II and the imposition on Japan of an American-style constitution, members of the imperial family were no longer required to select spouses from among the old aristocracy, whose titles and positions had been abolished. The Imperial Household Agency, which regulates the daily lives of the emperor and his family, began a search and determined that Japan’s future empress should come from one of the old families or a family of good name and have been educated at the Gakushuin School for women. Akihito’s choice was Michiko Shoda, the daughter of a prominent industrialist who had been educated at a Roman Catholic school. The crown prince had met her on the tennis courts at Kuruizawa, an exclusive resort in the Japanese mountains. Shoda’s family discouraged her from accepting the proposal, fearful of the burdens that membership in the imperial family would impose on their daughter. However, Akihito’s persistence won over Shoda, and they were married April 10, 1959.
Akihito’s marriage to a commoner marked the first time the son of an emperor had married outside the aristocracy. Crown Princess Michiko met with opposition from among the old court as well as from Empress Nagako. Reputedly, the stress created by the imperial court’s “old guard” forced Crown Princess Michiko into a period of seclusion for four months. Nevertheless, within the first decade of their marriage, three children were born to Akihito and Michiko, sons Naruhito and Akishino and daughter Sayako.
Crown Prince Akihito frequently traveled overseas on behalf of Emperor Hirohito and visited numerous nations. In 1953, Akihito traveled to the United Kingdom and represented Japan at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The United States was the first nation that the crown prince and his wife visited together after their marriage. As members of the imperial family, the crown prince and princess annually participated in the New Year’s reception, New Year’s lectures, New Year’s poetry readings, and imperial garden parties. Akihito and Michiko’s travels within Japan focused on educational, cultural, and social welfare projects. The crown prince was the honorary president or patron of the Third Asian Games (1958), the International Sports Games for the Disabled (1964), the Pacific Science Congress (1966), the Universiade in Tokyo (1967), the Japan World Exposition in Osaka (1970), and the International Skill Contest for the Disabled (1981).
Akihito is a noted ichthyologist and for more than twenty-five years made a taxonomic study of gobiid fish. A member of the Ichthyological Society of Japan, Akihito has published more than twenty-five papers in the society’s journal, and in 1985 he was selected the society’s honorary president at the Second International Conference on Indo-Pacific Fishes. Akihito has written entries on the species of gobiid fishes that were published in 1984 in The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago as well as the introduction to a special issue of Science devoted to science in Japan. He was both an elected and honorary member of the Linnaean Society of London. As crown prince, Akihito developed a great interest in natural life, conservation, and history. He was also an avid tennis player, swimmer, skier, and horseback rider and enjoyed classical music and jazz.
During Hirohito’s extended battle with cancer, starting in 1987, Akihito assumed many of the emperor’s duties, including opening the Diet, placing the imperial seal on state documents, and receiving foreign ambassadors. On the death of Hirohito on January 7, 1989, Akihito became emperor, receiving the sacred sword, necklace, and mirror, the symbols of the imperial authority. Emperor Akihito adopted the reign name of Heisei, meaning “peace fulfilled” or “achieving peace.” Court astrologers designated November 12, 1990, for Akihito’s accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne. The date corresponded to the daijosai, or great food-offering ritual, during which Akihito would commune with the sun goddess and emerge transformed into a kami, or godlike being. The ceremony was not without controversy because the rituals involved ancient Shinto rites that were associated with Japan’s pre-World War II militaristic past. Several of Japan’s political parties boycotted the enthronement ceremonies.
As emperor, Akihito traveled to Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, countries occupied by Japan during World War II. In each nation, Akihito delivered a strongly worded apology for Japan’s wartime behavior. Akihito emphasized that Japan was now a nation of peace. In 1994, a planned visit to and expression of regret at Pearl Harbor by Akihito was postponed because of opposition from Japanese rightists. Emperor Akihito’s visit to Great Britain in 1998 was strongly opposed by British survivors of Japanese concentration camps, who turned their backs on the royal coach carrying Queen Elizabeth and Emperor Akihito to Buckingham Palace. Akihito expressed sorrow for the wartime suffering of British former prisoners of war, but the emperor’s purely symbolic role prevented him from expressing a stronger statement or offering financial compensation.
Akihito was mandated to perform his duties as sanctioned by Japan’s postwar constitution. He had to remain above politics and refrain from any political commentary. He signed political documents, greeted foreign dignitaries, opened the Diet, and presided over state banquets. Akihito was responsible for the maintenance of Shinto shrines and performing more than forty religious events each year.
In the early twenty-first century, Japan’s imperial family presented to the nation the image of a popular nuclear family. Additional media coverage was given to the activities of Empress Michiko and the wives of the emperor’s two sons. The Heisei court was more open, and many barriers between the imperial family and the people were removed. The imperial family spoke directly to ordinary citizens and visited those in need. The emperor and empress visited the sites of major natural disasters, such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and personally comforted victims. They attended concerts and exhibitions and were even seen dancing in public. The emperor’s official car stopped for red lights as required of any Japanese citizen. Nevertheless, although the imperial court was more accessible to the media, Japan still maintained strong censorship laws that prevent direct comment or criticism about the emperor and his family.
In the decades following Akihito’s ascension, the emperor and the imperial family were more visible to the Japanese people but still isolated behind the walls of the Imperial Palace under the protection of the Imperial Household Agency. Carefully scripted press conferences allowed the emperor and empress to answer only previously submitted questions from the press corps. The emperor and empress traveled to each of Japan’s forty-seven prefectures, putting a more human face on the imperial institution, and at the discretion of the government, they represented Japan at major international events. Controversy surrounding the emperor came from the militaristic legacy of Japan during the emperor’s childhood and World War II. Asian and European nations continued to seek apologies for Japanese occupation of their lands and other grievances. Such apologies can come from the emperor only with governmental approval. When Emperor Akihito visited the former Japanese island of Saipan in 2005 to honor Japan’s war dead with Shinto ceremonies, there was some international unease about whether Japan was reviving its prewar militaristic stance.
Although the emperor remained above criticism, the empress had several bouts of stress-related illnesses that seemed to have been caused by subtle attacks on her and her role. The 2005 wedding of the imperial couple’s only daughter, Princess Sayako, to a commoner generated public discussion of the inequities facing women born into the imperial family: They lose their titles, incomes, and residences by marriage to outsiders, while the emperor’s sons retain all rights and see their wives raised from commoners to members of the imperial family. The attendance of the emperor and empress at the wedding of their daughter at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was a major break with tradition.
The daughters of the imperial family became a topic of discussion in the 1990s and early twenty-first century, as the emperor and empress’s two sons, Naruhito and Akishino, had both married but not yet produced a male heir. Crown Prince Naruhito, the heir apparent, married Masako Owada in 1993, but the marriage had produced only a daughter, Aiko, in 2001. Prince Akishino, the second son, had married Kiko Kawashima in 1990, but his marriage had resulted only in daughters Mako (1991) and Kako (1994). The Japanese government considered revising the laws of succession to allow Crown Prince Naruhito’s only child, a daughter, to succeed. The discussion of female succession led to a great national debate, giving the emperor and the imperial family more visibility than normally allowed. Historically, Japan had been governed at different times by regent empresses; however, opponents to female succession argued that the historical empresses had been only temporary rulers. The announcement in January 2006 that Prince Akishino’s wife was pregnant persuaded the government to shelve any succession law changes temporarily, and the birth of Prince Hisahito in late 2006 ended the debate on female succession for a time, although the issue drew more attention to the inequality still faced by Japanese women.
In 2009, Japan celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Akihito's enthronement with a variety of events, including parades and speeches. By 2016, after struggles with prostate cancer and a heart condition, Akihito gave another rare televised speech to alert the public of his concerns over increasing weakness and the possible impairment of his abilities to carry out all of his duties. The following year, the Japanese legislature had approved a bill permitting Akihito to abdicate the throne before his death, as is law. Subsequently, he officially abdicated, citing his declining health and advanced age, in a ceremony held on April 30, 2019. Crown Prince Naruhito ascended to the throne the following day.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emeritus Michiko moved out of the Imperial Palace in 2020 and made their first public appearance since his abdication in 2019. In July 2022, at the age of eighty-nine, Akihito was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. During the following year, 2023, he and Michiko visited the tennis court where they first met.
Significance
Although the role of the emperor of Japan is not what it was in the years before World War II, to some people and nations, the emperor remains a symbol of nationalism and militarism. The Japanese Diet’s decision to restore the pre-World War II national anthem and officially adopt the Rising Sun flag generated concern about an increase in Japanese nationalism. The perception of the role of the emperor and the imperial family, however, changed with the ascension of the first emperor never to claim divinity. The public criticism of the movement to allow female succession revealed a generational divide between younger and female Japanese citizens and older, more patriarchal citizens. As emperor, Akihito was the historical, ceremonial, and cultural symbol of a Japanese nation in transition that remained committed to democracy as it restored selected imperial traditions.
Bibliography
Behr, Edward. Hirohito, Behind the Myth. Villard, 1989.
Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. HarperCollins, 2000.
Burack, Emily. "Emperor Emeritus Akihito's Life in Photos." Town & Country, 20 Aug. 2023, www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/g44811087/emperor-akihito-photos/. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
"Emperor Akihito: Japanese Monarch Declares Historic Abdication." BBC News, 30 Apr. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48020703. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
Fujitani, T. Splendid Monarchy and Pageantry in Modern Japan. U of California P, 1998.
Hane, Mikiso, and Louis G. Perez. Modern Japan: A Historical Survey. 5th ed., Westview, 2013.
"Japanese Emperor Emeritus Diagnosed with Heart Failure, Condition Improved." Reuters, 26 July 2022, www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japanese-emperor-emeritus-diagnosed-with-heart-failure-recovering-media-2022-07-26/. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.
Kingston, Jeff. Contemporary Japan: History, Politics, and Social Change Since the 1980s. Wiley, 2013.
Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. “Self and Other in Esteemed Status: The Changing Culture of Japanese Royalty from Showa and Heisei.” Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 1997, pp. 257–89.
Packard, Jerrold M. Sons of Heaven: A Portrait of the Japanese Monarchy. Scribner, 1987.
Philomene, Marie, and Masako Saito, editors. Tomoshibi Light. Weatherhill, 1991.
Seagrave, Sterling, and Peggy Seagrave. The Yamato Dynasty. Broadway, 1999.
Simon, Charlie May. The Sun and the Birch: The Story of Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko. Dutton, 1960.
Smith, Patrick. Japan: A Reinterpretation. Random House, 2011.
Tada, Akiko. "Turning 90, Akihito Just a Regular Guy Like Other Retirees." The Asahi Shimbun, 23 Dec. 2023, www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15093149. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
Vining, Elizabeth Gray. Windows for the Crown Prince. Lippincott, 1952.