EMPEROR OF JAPAN, AKIHITO

The Emperor (天皇 tennō, literally "heavenly sovereign") is currently a constitutionally-recognized symbol of the Japanese nation and the unity of its people. He is the head of the Japanese Imperial Family. Under Japan's present constitution, the emperor is a ceremonial figurehead in a constitutional monarchy (see Politics of Japan).
The role of the emperor of Japan has historically alternated between that of a supreme-rank cleric with largely symbolic powers and that of an actual imperial ruler. An underlying imperial cult (Arahitogami) regards the emperor as being descended from gods. With some exceptions, Japanese monarchs have not been military commanders, contrary to the role of Western monarch. Generally, before the Meiji Restoration, emperors merely legitimized those in actual power. Japanese emperors have nearly always been controlled by other political forces. It has only differed in degree. There have been many emperors who had virtually no political power at all.
Particularly, there have been, in different eras, altogether five non-imperial families who have subjected Japanese emperors as their puppets: the Soga (530's-645), the Fujiwara (850's-1070), the Minamoto (and Kamakura bakufu) (1192-1331), the Ashikaga (1336-1565) and the Tokugawa (1603-1867).
The government today continues a similar coexistence with the emperor as have various shoguns, regents, warlords, guardians, cloistered emperors, etc, throughout the history.
The current emperor is Emperor Akihito, referred to in Japan as "His Majesty the Emperor" (Tennō Heika, 天皇陛下), as calling him by his personal name is considered disrespectful. He has been on the Chrysanthemum Throne since his father Emperor Hirohito died in 1989.
Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Imperial Palace has been called Kōkyo (皇居), and located on the former site of Edo Castle in the heart of Tokyo. Earlier emperors resided in Kyoto for nearly eleven centuries.
Certain dates and details may be in dispute among Japanese historians. Many emperors cited in the formal list of Emperors of Japan died at a very young age and can hardly be said to have "ruled" in any serious sense of the word. Others were overshadowed by their predecessors, who had ostensibly retired to a monastery but continued to exert influence
Although the emperor has been a symbol of continuity with the past, the degree of power exercised by the emperor of Japan has varied considerably throughout Japanese history.
The earliest emperors recorded in Kojiki and Nihonshoki, such as Emperor Jimmu, are considered today to have no historical credibility. The earliest monarch now listed as an emperor who is generally acknowledged by historians to have existed historically was Emperor Ojin, but the time of his reign is uncertain (presumably it was in late 4th century and/or in beginning of 5th century). These two books state that the imperial house maintained a continuous lineage, though today some historians believe that many ancient emperors who were claimed to be descendants of Emperor Ōjin had no actual genealogical tie to their predecessor. However, the genealogy beginning from the late 5th century can be regarded reliable, thus meaning that the dynasty has continued at least some 1500 years.
Until 6th century CE, the chieftainship now retrospectively known as the imperial dynasty was obviously just one local kingship (king of Yamato) among several other chieftains. In 5th and 6th centuries, it gradually amassed influence, control and dominance over all its neighbors, ultimately culminating in a relatively centralized state during Prince Shotoku's efforts. That outcome contained practically all areas where Japanese culture lived, i.e all central parts of what is now Japan, so that only remote areas usually populated more by aboriginal tribes (Ainu, Hayashi) were outside its borders. 5th century also was apparently the last period when remarkable inputs (mass immigration etc) took place in adding to formation of Japanese ethnicity. The "imperial dynasty" of 5th century may even be a later concoction of cobbling several families (rulers of separate chieftaincies, tribes and even constituent ethnicities) together as a continuous list of monarchs and a continuous genealogy. In mid-6th century, apparently ancestral ruling families had converged also genealogically to give birth to Kimmei and his children, from whom the continuous imperial line descends.
Certain dates and details may be in dispute among Japanese historians. Many emperors cited in the formal list of Emperors of Japan died at a very young age and can hardly be said to have "ruled" in any serious sense of the word. Others were overshadowed by their predecessors, who had ostensibly retired to a monastery but continued to exert influence in a process called "cloistered rule."
Cloistered emperors have been known to come into conflict with the reigning emperor from time to time; a notable example is the Hogen Rebellion of 1156, in which former Emperor Sutoku attempted to seize power from the then current Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Other instances, such as Emperor Go-Toba's 1221 rebellion against the Kamakura shogunate and the 1336 Kemmu Restoration under Emperor Go-Daigo, show the power struggle between the Imperial House and the military governments of Japan.

The title "Emperor of Japan" is in some sense an expedient Western construct of a hereditary officer who has historically had a deeply ingrained position in Japanese society, without any necessary role in government. Japanese administrations have usually had to accept the emperor as a necessary inconvenience - as the Italian government had to live with the pope residing within the borders of Italy. The Japanese people conventionally regard such a figurehead as a monarch, in the same sense that the caliph, the pope and the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic were once regarded as monarchs. In most (if not all) periods, that monarch has had at least some official role in the government of Japan - or perhaps we should say that governments have utilized the influence of the emperor to their own advantage.
Up to recent centuries, Japan's territory did not include several remote regions of its modern-day territory. The name Nippon came into use only many centuries after the start of the current imperial line. Centralized government really only began to appear shortly before and during the time of Prince Shotoku. The emperor was more like a revered embodiment of divine harmony rather than the head of an actual governing administration. In Japan it has always been easy for ambitious lords to hold actual power, as such positions have not been inherently contradictory to the emperor's position. Parliamentary government today continues a similar coexistence with the emperor as have various shoguns, regents, warlords, guardians, etc. It is perhaps technically a distortion to use the English word "emperor" to translate the word "tennō". In Europe, people holding similar offices have retained the titles used in their own native language, which is perhaps more accurate than trying to translate such a unique office into a preexisting English term.
Historically the titles of tennō in Japanese have never included territorial designations as is the case with many European monarchs. The position of emperor is a territory-independent phenomenon - the emperor is the emperor, even if he has followers only in one province (as was the case sometimes with the southern and northern courts).

shoguns
From the late 1100s to 1867, the real power was in the hands of the shoguns, who were in theory always given their authority through the emperor. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first contacted Japan (see Nanban period), they likened the relationship between emperor and shogun to that of the Catholic Pope (godly, but with little political power) and king (earthly, but with a relatively large amount of political power) though this in itself can be considered inaccurate as, like the Emperor, Catholic Popes have wielded varying degrees of power throughout their history.

Meiji restoration
By the constitution of 1889, the emperor of Japan transferred a large part of his former powers as absolute monarch to the representatives of the people, but remained head of the empire. Though inspired by the constitutions of Europe, the new Meiji Constitution was not as democratic as some had initially hoped. The emperor was given broad and vague "reserve powers" which in turn were exploited by the prime minister and various cliques around the emperor. By the 1930s the Japanese cabinet was largely composed of pseudo-fascist military leaders who used the emperor and his supposed divinity as an ultra-nationalistic rallying point for expansion of the empire. When World War II erupted, the emperor was the symbol soldiers were indoctrinated to fight and die for. The emperor himself was hidden from sight, however, and his actual role during this period is disputed. It is commonly believed he was largely sidelined by the military. Controversy still remains as to the role Hirohito played in commanding Japanese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War.

Current role
The emperor's role is defined in Chapter I of the 1947 Constitution of Japan. Article 1 defines the emperor as the symbol of state and the unity of the people, Article 3 requires the approval of the cabinet for all acts of the emperor in matters of state, Article 4 specifically states that the emperor shall not have powers related to government, Article 6 gives the emperor the power to appoint the prime minister and the chief judge of the supreme court, each as designated by the Diet and cabinet, respectively, and Article 7 gives the emperor power to perform various ministerial functions typical of a head of state, subject to the advice and approval of the cabinet. In contrast with other constitutional monarchs, the emperor of Japan has no reserve powers.
Although the emperor currently performs many of the roles of a ceremonial sovereign as head of state, there has been persistent controversy within Japan as to whether the emperor is in fact a true monarch in a political sense or merely a hereditary pretender holding such office within a constitutional parliamentary republic. In a traditional monarchy, political power devolves from the monarchical sovereign, whose Royal prerogative is then exercised at the whim of elected legislators by way of established constitutional convention. However, if there is no royal prerogative then sovereignty must rest with people as it is so established under Article One of the Constitution of Japan. Hence the emperor is simply a political actor within a government that does not truly adhere to the Westminster system where the position of "head of the state" requires a person of sovereignty or with popular mandate to assume that office. Efforts in the 1950s by conservative powers to amend the constitution to explicitly name the emperor as head of state were rejected. Regardless, the emperor does perform all the diplomatic functions normally associated with a head of state and as a result is recognized as such by foreign powers.

Naming
Due to linguistic and cultural differences between Japan and the Western world, naming the emperors of Japan is often troublesome. While scholastic texts in Japan use "{name} tennō" consistently, in texts by English-speaking academics several variants have been used, such as "Emperor {name}", "the {name} Emperor", and "{name} Tenno", although "Emperor {name}" appears to be the most common among these, particularly for emperors prior to Emperor Meiji. What is often not understood, however, is that emperors are posthumously named "{name} tennō", and thus the word "tennō, or "emperor", actually forms a part of their proper name. This is particularly misunderstood with respect to the emperors from Emperor Meiji onward, since the convention now is to posthumously name the emperors the same name as the era over which they preside, whereas previously one emperor's reign might contain a succession of short eras. Terms such as "the Meiji emperor" are thus understood in English as meaning "the emperor of the Meiji period", which is not the understanding in Japanese.
In English, the term mikado (御門 or 帝 or みかど), which literally means "exalted gate", used to be used to refer to the emperor of Japan; this usage is now outdated, as it is in Japanese. In Japanese, the emperors of Japan, but not of other countries, are known as tennō (天皇). Literally, the word tennō combines the characters for "ruler" and "heaven", but this is not a mark of divinity; the use of ten (天, "heaven") in the Japanese word was an adoption of the established Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which meant that an emperor was appointed in the heavens to balance the political and religious affairs of his domain.
There are three Japanese words equivalent to the English word "emperor": tennō (天皇) is used specifically to describe the emperor of Japan, kōtei (皇帝, lit. "emperor of emperors") is used primarily to describe a Chinese emperor or a foreign emperor, and teiō (帝王, lit. "emperor of kings") is used to describe foreign emperors as well but never a Chinese emperor. Sumeramikoto (lit. "heavenly ruler above the clouds") was also used in Old Japanese.

Traditionally, East Asians consider it discourteous to call a person of noble rank by their given name. This convention is almost dead, but still observed for the imperial family. Tenno (imina) gets attached posthum (prefix), but not to the current time emperor. Instead, past emperors are called by posthumous names such as Emperor Jimmu, Emperor Kammu and Meiji. Since the Meiji era, era names are also used as posthumous names. The current emperor on the throne is almost always referred to simply as Tennō Heika (天皇陛下, lit. "His Majesty the Emperor") or solemnly as Kinjō Tennō (今上天皇). On the other hand, in ordinary conversations he is referred to simply as Heika, Okami or To-gin san ('To-gin' is a frank expression of Kinjō). The current emperor is not called by the current era name: the era will become his posthumous name. But today this custom tends to be followed more loosely, as described below. In English, the recent emperors are called by their personal names according to Western convention. As explained above, in Japanese this sounds offensive and, in some senses, blasphemous.
For example, the previous emperor is usually called Hirohito in English, but after his death he was renamed Shōwa Tennō and is now referred to exclusively by this name in Japanese. However, during his reign, he was never referred as Hirohito or Shōwa Tennō in Japanese. Rather, he was simply referred to as Tennō Heika (meaning "His Majesty the Emperor").

Origin of the title
The ruler of Japan was variously known as ヤマト大王/大君 (yamato ōkimi, Great King of Yamato), 倭王/倭国王 (waō/wakokuō, King of Wa, used externally), 治天下大王 (amenoshita shiroshimesu ōkimi or sumera no mikoto, Great King who rules all under heaven, used internally) in Japanese and Chinese sources prior to the 7th century. The first documented use of the title "tennō" is in the diplomatic letter from Empress Suiko to Emperor Yang of Sui China in 607 CE, bearing the sentence "tennō of the east hails kōtei of the west", although the same sentence was translated into Chinese as "tianzi of the land of sunrise hails tianzi of the land of sunset". 天子, tianzi, son of heaven, was a title used by Chinese emperors. The use of the title proliferated in Japan and China since the 7th century. The introduction of this term comes amidst the movement of Japanese sinicization, and is considered an attempt of the Japanese rulers to assert themselves on equal footing with the Chinese emperors. Notably, Tianhuang (天皇), Chinese equivalent of tennō, was among the titles adopted by Emperor Gaozong of Tang China in the same period, although it is not known whether the two usages arose independently or whether one was influenced by the other.

Marriage traditions
Throughout history, contrary to any sort of harem practice of not recognizing a chief wife and just keeping an assortment of female chattel, Japanese emperors and noblemen appointed the position of chief wife.
The Japanese imperial dynasty consistently practiced official polygyny, a practice that only ended in the Taisho period (1912-1926). Besides the empress, the emperor could take, and nearly always took, several secondary consorts ("concubines") of various hierarchical degrees. Concubines were allowed also to other dynasts (shinno, o). After a decision decreed by Emperor Ichijo, some emperors even had two empresses simultaneously (kogo and chugu are the two separate titles for that situation). With the help of all this polygamy, the imperial clan thus was capable of producing more offspring. (Sons by secondary consorts were usually recognized as imperial princes, too, and could be recognized as heir to the throne if the empress did not give birth to an heir.)
Of the eight female tennō (reigning empress) of Japan, none married nor gave birth after ascending the throne. Some of them, being widows, had produced children prior to their reigns.
In the succession, children of the empress were preferred over sons of secondary consorts. Thus it was significant which quarters had preferential opportunities in providing chief wives to imperial princes, i.e supplying future empresses.
The apparently oldest tradition of official marriages within the imperial dynasty were marriages between its members. Even between half-siblings, or between uncle and niece. Such were deemed to preserve better the imperial blood, but also sometimes were aimed to producing children as symbol of reconciliation between two branches of imperial dynasty. Daughters of others than imperials remained concubines, until -specifically reported as first elevation of its kind- Emperor Shomu elevated his Fujiwara consort to chief wife.
Japanese monarchs have been, as much as others elsewhere, dependent on making alliances with powerful chiefs and other monarchs. Many such alliances were sealed by marriages. The specific feature in Japan has been the fact that these marriages have been soon incorporated as elements of tradition which controlled the marriages of later generations, though the original practical alliance had lost its real meaning. A repeated pattern has been an imperial son-in-law under the influence of his powerful non-imperial father-in-law.
Beginning from the 7th and 8th centuries, emperors primarily took women of the Fujiwara clan as their highest wives - the most probable mothers of future monarchs. This was cloaked as a tradition of marriage between heirs of two kamis, Shinto gods: descendants of Amaterasu with descendants of the family kami of the Fujiwara. (Originally, the Fujiwara were descended from relatively minor nobility, thus their kami is an unremarkable one in the Japanese myth world.) To produce imperial children, heirs of the nation, with two-side descent from the two kamis, was regarded desirable - or at least it suited to powerful Fujiwara lords, who thus received preference in imperial marriage market. The reality behind such marriages was an alliance between an imperial prince and a Fujiwara lord, his father-in-law or grandfather, the latter with his resources supporting the prince to the throne and most often controlling the government. These arrangements created the tradition of regents (Sessho and Kampaku), with these positions allowed to be held only by a Fujiwara sekke lord.
Earlier, the emperors had married females from families of the government-holding Soga lords, and females of the imperial clan itself, i.e various-degree cousins and often even their own sisters (half-sisters). Several imperials of the 5th and 6th centuries were children of a couple of half-siblings. These marriages often were alliance or succession devices: the Soga lord ensured the domination of a prince, to be put as puppet to the throne; or a prince ensured the combination of two imperial descents, to strengthen his own and his children's claim to the throne. Marriages were also a means to seal a reconciliation between two imperial branches.
After a couple of centuries, emperors could no longer take anyone from outside such families as primary wife, no matter what the expediency of such a marriage and power or wealth brought by such might have been. Only very rarely was a prince without a mother of descent from such families allowed to ascend the throne. The earlier necessity and expediency had mutated into a strict tradition that did not allow for current expediency or necessity, but only dictated that daughters of a restricted circle of families were eligible brides, because they had produced eligible brides for centuries. Tradition had become more forceful than law.
Fujiwara women were often Empresses, and concubines came from less exalted noble families. In the last thousand years, sons of an imperial male and a Fujiwara woman have been preferred in the succession.
The five Fujiwara families, Ichijo, Kujo, Nijo, Konoe and Takatsukasa, were the primary source of imperial brides from the 8th century to the 19th century, even more often than daughters of the imperial clan itself. Fujiwara daughters were thus the usual empresses and mothers of emperors.
The acceptable source of imperial wives, brides for the emperor and crown prince, were even legislated into the Meiji-era imperial house laws (1889), which stipulated that daughters of Sekke (the five main branches of the higher Fujiwara) and daughters of the imperial clan itself were primarily acceptable brides.
Since that law was repealed in the aftermath of WWII, the present Emperor Akihito became the first crown prince for over a thousand years to have an empress outside the previously eligible circle.

Succession
The Japanese imperial dynasty bases its position in the expression that it has reigned "since time immemorial". It is true that its origins are buried unders mists of time: there are no records to show an existence of any early emperor who is known to have not been a descendant of other, yet earlier emperors. An early ancestor of the dynasty, Emperor Keitai (flourished in the early 500's CE) however is suspected to have been an homme nouveau, though he is traditionally regarded as a distant member of the dynasty of his predecessors. According to records, the family he started on the throne, however descends also from at least one, probably of several, imperial princesses of the immediate dynasty of his predecessors. The tradition built by those legends has chosen to recognize just the putative male ancestry as valid for legitimizing his succession, not giving any weight to ties through the said princesses. Millennia ago, the Japanese imperial family developed its own peculiar system of hereditary succession. It has been non-primogenitural, more or less agnatic, based mostly on rotation. Today, Japan uses strict agnatic primogeniture - in other words, pure Salic law. It was adopted from Prussia, by which Japan was greatly influenced in the 1870s.
Strict agnatic primogeniture is, however, directly contradictory to several old Japanese traditions of imperial succession.
The controlling principles and their interaction were apparently very complex and sophisticated, leading to even idiosyncratic outcomes. Some chief principles apparent in the succession have been:
Females were allowed to succeed (but there existed no own children of theirs whose father did not also happen to be an agnate of the imperial house, thus there is neither a precedent that a child of an imperial woman with a non-imperial male were allowed to inherit, nor a precedent forbidding it of children of empresses). However, female accession was clearly much rarer than male.
Adoption was possible and a much used way to increase the number of succession-entitled heirs (however, the adopted child had to be a child of another member agnate of the imperial house).
Abdication was used very often, and in fact occurred more often than death on the throne. In those days, the emperor's chief task was priestly (or godly), containing so many repetitive rituals that it was deemed that after a service of around ten years, the incumbent deserved pampered retirement as an honored former emperor.
Primogeniture was not used - rather, in the early days, the imperial house practised something resembling a system of rotation. Very often a brother (or sister) followed the elder sibling even in the case of the predecessor leaving children. The "turn" of the next generation came more often after several individuals of the senior generation. Rotation went often between two or more of the branches of the imperial house, thus more or less distant cousins succeeded each other. Emperor Go-Saga even decreed an official alternation between heirs of his two sons, which system continued for a couple of centuries (leading finally to shōgun-induced (or utilized) strife between these two branches, the "southern" and "northern" emperors). Towards the end, the alternates were very distant cousins counted in degrees of male descent (but all that time, intermarriages occurred within the imperial house, thus they were close cousins if female ties are counted). During the past five hundred years, however, probably due to Confucian influence, inheritance by sons - but not always, or even most often, the eldest son - has been the norm.
Historically, the succession to Japan's Chrysanthemum Throne has always passed to descendants in male line from the imperial lineage. Generally they have been males, though of the over one hundred monarchs there have been eight women as Emperor.
Over a thousand years ago, a tradition started that an emperor should ascend relatively young. A dynast who has passed one's toddler years, was regarded suitable and old enough. Reaching the age of legal majority was not a requirement. Thus, a multitude of Japanese emperors have ascended as children, as young as 6 or 8 years old. The high-priestly duties were deemed possible for a walking child. A reign of around ten years was regarded a sufficient service. Being a child was apparently a fine property, to endure tedious duties and to tolerate subjugation to political powerfuls, as well as sometimes to cloak the real powerful members of the imperial dynasty. Almost all Japanese empresses and dozens of emperors abdicated, and lived the rest of their lives in pampered retirement, and/or influencing behind the curtains. Several emperors abdicated/reached their entitled retirement while still in their teens. These traditions show in Japanese folklore, theater, literature and other forms of culture, where emperor is usually described or depicted as an adolescent.
In part, the Japanese imperial dynasty owes its longevity (at least 1500 years) in the male line to the use of concubines, a practice that only ended in the Taisho period (1912-1926). The Japanese monarchy also relied on the specially designated collateral lines or shinnōke (shinnō houses).
Sons of empress consorts were preferred over sons of concubines. In the last thousand years, sons of an imperial male and a Fujiwara woman have been preferred in the succession, presumably because Fujiwara women were often Empresses. Some emperors even had two empresses simultaneously (kogo, chugu) after a decree from the reign of Emperor Ichijo. There are indications that between the son of a Fujiwara woman and the son of an imperial princess, Fujiwara descent was given precedence. This may have been caused by the higher influence of the said Fujiwara's relatives, but may also have been a part of tradition, perhaps due to the preference to have an emperor with two-side descent from the two kamis.

The two influential patterns of maternal descent were:
a powerful maternal grandfather ensured a puppet on the throne in the person of an underage grandson, himself becoming their guardian. This pattern was usual in the Soga and Fujiwara eras, and even some later shoguns used their daughters in that way. This sometimes also occurred with a father-in-law and an imperial son-in-law (but regent lords preferred underage grandsons to adult son-in-laws).
a prince having descent from two rival branches of the imperial dynasty, one from the paternal side and the other from the maternal side, was elevated to the throne as a symbol of reconciliation.
Concubines came from less exalted noble families. Their kin were usually not in position to guarantee influential support in competition of succession, as such maternal relatives generally were not as powerful as relatives of empress consorts.
Besides the empress, the emperor could take concubines, and the son he had by a concubine would be recognized as heir to the throne if the empress did not give birth to an heir. Concubines were allowed also to other dynasts (shinno, o). With the help of polygamy, the imperial clan thus was capable of producing more male offspring, increasing the probability that the dynasty survived in the male line.
If the immediate imperial family failed to produce an heir, one of the shinnōke could provide the future emperor. There were four such collateral lines in the Edo period: Fushimi, Katsura, Arisugawa, and Kan'in. Emperor Kōkaku (reigned 1780-1817), the lineal ancestor of all subsequent emperors, was a scion of the Kan'in house. A shinnoke could be inherited by a prince of another branch by permission of the emperor, and alternatively could be revived (the princedoms, shinnoke, seem more or less the common property of the imperial clan). The Edo-period Katsura and Arisugawa houses died out in 1881 and 1913, respectively (though they were revived later, the Arisugawa as Takamatsu, its older name, and the Katsura in the person of the second son of Prince Mikasa). The Fushimi branch, originating from the 15th century, produced a vast number of children in two generations in the 19th century. A scion of the Fushimi house succeeded to the Kan'in house in 1884. The Fushimi house was the progenitor of nine other cadet branches (ōke) of the imperial family during the Meiji period. This house and its offshoots were reduced to commoner status in 1947.
Occasionally, even equal primogeniture has won in historical cases of Japanese succession: while it is true that most succession events in Japan had since time immemorial went in favor of a male heir, not necessarily the eldest of the sons themselves, it nevertheless is established by two precedents (of 1629 CE and of 642 CE) that an imperial princess may ascend the throne in preference and prior to her younger brothers. In 1629, the imperial princess Okiko ascended the Japanese throne as Empress Meisho tenno, as successor of her father, prior to her brothers and other males. Only after her abdication 14 years later, her brother Tsuguhito (Emperor Go-Komyo tenno) ascended.
Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had eight female tennō or reigning empresses, all of them daughters of the male line of the Imperial House. None ascended purely as a wife or as a widow of an emperor. Imperial daughters and granddaughters, however, usually ascended the throne as a sort of a "stop gap" measure - if a suitable male was not available or some imperial branches were in rivalry so that a compromise was needed. Almost all Japanese empresses and dozens of emperors abdicated - many empresses once a suitable male descendant in the male line of imperial descendants passed his toddler years, i.e became old enough. Three empresses, Empress Suiko, Empress Kōgyoku (also Empress Saimei) and Empress Jitō, were widows of deceased emperors and princesses of the blood imperial in their own right. One, Empress Gemmei, was the widow of a crown prince and a princess of the blood imperial. The other four, Empress Genshō, Empress Kōken (also Empress Shōtoku), Empress Meishō and Empress Go-Sakuramachi, were unwed daughters of previous emperors. None of these empresses married or gave birth after ascending the throne.

Article 2 of the 1889 Meiji Constitution (the Constitution of the Empire of Japan) stated, "The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by imperial male descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law." The 1889 Imperial Household Law fixed the succession on male descendants of the imperial line, and specifically excluded female descendants from the succession. In the event of a complete failure of the main line, the throne would pass to the nearest collateral branch, again in the male line. If the empress did not give birth to an heir, the emperor could take a concubine, and the son he had by that concubine would be recognized as heir to the throne. This law, which was promulgated on the same day as the Meiji Constitution, enjoyed co-equal status with that constitution.

Article 2 of the Constitution of Japan, promulgated in 1947 by influence of US occupation administration and still in force, provides that "The Imperial Throne shall be dynastic and succeeded to in accordance with the Imperial Household Law passed by the Diet." The Imperial Household Law of 16 January 1947, enacted by the ninety-second and last session of the Imperial Diet, retained the exclusion on female dynasts found in the 1889 law. The government of Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru hastily cobbled together the legislation to bring the Imperial Household in compliance with the American-written Constitution of Japan that went into effect in May 1947. In an effort to control the size of the imperial family, the law stipulates that only legitimate male descendants in the male line can be dynasts; that imperial princesses and princesses lose their status as Imperial Family members if they marry outside the Imperial Family; and that the Emperor and other members of the Imperial Family may not adopt children. It also cut other branches than that descending from Taisho, from being imperial princes any longer.

Current status
Succession is now regulated by laws passed by the Japanese Diet. The current law excludes females from the succession despite the historical existence of female occupants of the throne. A change to this law is being considered, since, as of 2005, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito is female. (In the list of emperors of Japan, the empresses regnant are those with an asterisk after their reigning periods.) This creates a logistical challenge as well as political: any change in the law would most likely mean a revision to allow the succession of the first born rather than the first born son; however, the current emperor is not the first born, he has elder sisters.
There is a potential succession crisis since no male child has been born into the imperial family since Prince Akishino in 1965. Following the birth of Princess Aiko, there was some public debate about amending the current Imperial Household Law to allow women to succeed to the throne. In January 2005 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appointed a special panel comprised of judges, university professors, and civil servants to study changes to the Imperial Household Law and to make recommendations to the government.
The panel dealing with the succession issue recommended on October 25, 2005 amending the law to allow females of the male line of imperial descent to ascend the Japanese throne. On January 20, 2006, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi devoted part of his annual keynote speech to the controversy, pledging to submit a bill allowing women to ascend the throne to ensure that the succession continues in the future in a stable manner. However, shortly after the announcement that Princess Kiko was pregnant with her third child, Koizumi suspended such plans. If the child is a male, he will be the third in line to the throne under the current law of succession.

Emperor Akihito
AKA Akihito Tsugunomiya

Born: 23-Dec-1933
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan


Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Royalty

Nationality: Japan
Executive summary: Emperor of Japan

Father: Emperor Hirohito
Mother: Empress Kojun
Brother: Prince Hitachi (b. 28-Nov-1935)
Wife: Empress Michiko (m. 10-Apr-1959, two sons, one daughter)
Son: Prince Naruhito (Crown Prince of Japan, b. 23-Feb-1960)
Son: Prince Akishino (b. 11-Nov-1965)
Daughter: Princess Nori (b. 18-Apr-1969)


University: Gakushuin University (no degree)


Emperor of Japan 7-Jan-1989 to present
Order of the Garter 1998
Japanese Ancestry
Risk Factors: Prostate Cancer