Japan’s beloved Princess Aiko is often cheered like a pop star.
During a visit to Nagasaki with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, the sound of her name being screamed by well-wishers along the roads overwhelmed the cheers for her parents.
As she turns 24 on Monday, her supporters want to change Japan’s male-only succession law, which prohibits Aiko, the emperor’s only child, from becoming monarch.
Along with frustration that the discussion on succession rules has stalled, there’s a sense of urgency. Japan’s shrinking monarchy is on the brink of extinction. Naruhito’s teenage nephew is the only eligible heir from the younger generation.
Abolish all monarchies!
Whilst I agree in principle (since hereditary monarchies are inherently anti-meritocratic), there is actually a strong argument for constitutional and apolitical figurehead monarchs (i.e mostly powerless). They serve as something of an antidote to cults of personality and can also act as a uniting force in times of crisis.
They also print money from tourism. That usually the real reason to keep them around.
Do they? It’s not like the palaces and fancy hats just vanish if you abolish the institution. The tourists will come anyway, there’s no king in the Versailles palace and it’s still a major tourist attraction.
But France feels like an exception though. I wouldn’t say tourists are flocking to Albania or Austria to see the relics of their monarchies like people do with France.
There’s a real appeal behind having an active monarchy in place, even if it’s just symbolic. Take the UK as an example of this. One of the bigger draws to the country is that you get see all these monarchy related things places that are still occupied and used by a real royal family that has real historical depth and influence.
There are better ways to counter a cult of personality than a cult of divine providence.
I almost could agree in principle that’s how it might work, but as a person living in a monarchy (UK), they literally just protect their own and the establishment, every time. The status quo isn’t apolitical but deeply conservative.
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Japanese conservative monarchists are wild.
Look up the Google Maps reviews of the imperial palace. For some context, the majority of the imperial palace is completely off limits to the general public (in stark contrast to most developed countries), and the royal family does a new years greeting.
The reviews are monarchists unironically saying things like that they travelled for days, lined up for hours, caught a glimpse of one of the royal family, were temporarily transported to heaven, and will dedicate their lives hoping for the forever prosperity of the royal family.
I guess they missed the memo on how their monarchs aren’t actually divine, or maybe they really, really, REALLY want to keep that tradition alive. Could be both, too, or other reasons.
were temporarily transported to heaven
Makes sense, the japanese monarchy is one of the few that still claims divinity and Shintoism still says they should be venerated.
TIL that Japan has royal family.
And their dinasty at least dates back to the 6th century
Well… 6th century BC… maybe, depending on how much you trust the sometimes sketchy historical accounts.
It was the one term of their surrender.
Abolish monarchies
These monarchists enjoy hurting themselves all day, can’t relate.
I personally don’t care either way about the Japanese monarchy. The reality is that the monarchy today is purely symbolic and it’s only kept because the Japanese people want it to be there. Japanese culture is very big on traditions like this and I highly doubt that any attempts to change the line of succession is going to happen. Like with many things in Japan, there’s probably more interest in changing the line of succession outside of Japan than there is inside of it.
