SLAVE TO THE TORTOISE SHELL

Global News Reading: Japan’s emperor is a prisoner in his own palaces

Stifling bureaucracy and ritual are making Naruhito irrelevant to his subjects Oct 17th 2019| TOKYO

In his memoir, “The Thames and I”, Prince Naruhito (徳仁), as he was when he wrote it, recalls his time as a student at Oxford University in the 1980s.1 He recounts how doormen at a disco turned him away because he was wearing jeans—not the sort of reversal a Japanese royal often experiences. The picture above shows him dressed in his student gear.2 The two years he spent at Merton College researching transport on the Thames River in the 18th century were perhaps “the happiest time of my life”3, he writes.

Prince Naruhito became the 126th emperor of Japan in May when his father, Akihito, abdicated because of age and infirmity. He will be officially enthroned on October

1 [In his memoir…], (Prince Naruhito…), (recalls) (…). 2 (The picture above) (shows) (him [dressed …]). 3 (The two years …) (were) (perhaps …) 1

22nd, in a ceremony which the many grand guests, including the vice-president of China and the prime minister of South Korea, will watch only by video monitor from another part of the palace.

The life of Japan’s monarchs is absurdly formal and arcane. Emperor Naruhito’s cheery reflections on life in Britain nearly did not see the light of day. The Imperial Household Agency, the bureaucracy that dictates what Japanese royals can and cannot do, did not want the book published4 because they feared it would invite familiarity and ridicule. Its mandarins go to extraordinary lengths to protect the imperial family’s image. The family is so tightly bound by rules that it makes the House of Windsor seem positively lax.

Misogyny, not prurience The Japanese press, by and large, is respectful of the boundaries set by the Imperial Household Agency. It was foreign publications that broke the news first of Naruhito’s engagement in 1993 and then of his wife’s depression in 2004, even though lots of Japanese journalists were aware of both. Unlike in most European monarchies, there is no prurient tabloid coverage of the royals’ love lives—although there is frequent criticism of royal wives and daughters whenever they are perceived to be neglecting their duties.

The royal family’s relatively limited personal wealth, meanwhile, means that there is little scope for playboy princes or tearaway princesses. Most of the royal family’s assets were confiscated after the Second World War. The palaces and estates it uses are owned by the state, which also pays for their upkeep and for the

4 The Imperial Household Agency, the bureaucracy that dictates what Japanese royals can and cannot do, did not want the book published 2 maintenance of the royal household.

That leaves the royal family as a species of absurdly circumscribed civil servant, their lives arranged in minute detail by bureaucrats, their public statements carefully vetted to ensure they do not overstep their role as constitutional figureheads.5 Although the emperor and empress, much like monarchs from other countries, undertake goodwill trips abroad and encouraging visits to schools and charities at home, traditionalists see the emperor’s main job as performing obscure Shinto rituals. Next month he will offer rice from two regions of Japan (chosen based on priests’ interpretation of the cracks in a burnt tortoise shell) to the gods to thank them for the harvest, flanked by torch-bearing priests.

He battled on his wife’s behalf after she was criticized for tiny infractions of sexist palace protocol, from speaking longer than he did at their first joint press conference, to walking—gasp—a step ahead of her husband in public.

Constitutionally, the emperor is “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people”. But the imperial cocoon in which he is kept risks making him more of a relic.6 Emperor Naruhito is relatively informal when touring the country, petting dogs and chatting with schoolchildren. But younger Japanese seem to have little interest in the royal family—and the royal family has scant leeway to make itself more relevant.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Slave to the tortoise shell"

5 That leaves A, B, C 6 (the imperial cocoon in which he is kept) (risks making) (him) (more of a relic). 3