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Home , Civil service of Japan, Empress Michiko, Naruhito

Volume 2 | Issue 6 | Article ID 1936 | Jun 25, 2004 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Focus

Trouble at the Top: Japan's Imperial Family in Crisis

David McNeill, Herbert P. Bix

Trouble at the Top: Japan's Imperial he entered the room. We would leave directly Family in Crisis afterward. by David McNeill and Herbert P. Bix I mention this incident to give a flavor of the life of the beleaguered since Introduction (DMN) she gave up a diplomatic career for life beyond the royal moat. Surrounded by people like our In June this year I had the opportunity to visit handler, with their total dedication to the the inside of the Imperial Palace in when cult and the countless arcane rules I covered the official visit to Japan of Irish that structure it, and under intense pressure to Prime Minister Bertie Ahern as producea a male heir, it's all too easy to imagine correspondent for the Irish Times newspaper. the princess' state of mind. As the Imperial correspondent for Japan's top news agency On a sunny morning, I arrived with a small said: "Now you know why she has become ill. party of photographers and journalists inside There are so many old rules like these that the Palace ground, set in 300 sprawling acres must be making life unbearable for someone of greenery in the very heart of Tokyo, much of who was used to having a lot of freedom. On it off limits to the public that pays for it. We top of that she has to produce a child. I feel were met by a kunaicho (Imperial Household very sorry for her." Agency) official, a superbly unpleasant and sniffy , who did not feel the need to The plight of Masako is just part of a much smile or even greet us in the usual formal wider institutional crisis. Although still revered Japanese way. He immediately raised a fuss and discussed in semi-mystical terms by ultra- over the dress code of an RTE (Irish television) nationalists and a dwindling number of older cameraman, sparking a mad scramble for a Japanese raised to believe the Emperor was a jacket before our 11 am deadline to meet the god, most youngsters are indifferent to the Emperor. Imperial Family. The Emperor and his offspring have struggled to find a role in a country that On the way to the Emperor's official meeting does not allow them the same outlets for room for foreign dignitaries, the Household charitable and military pursuits as the UK Agency official complained that it was "rude" to royals; like their British counterparts, the turn up in informal clothes to meet "his Japanese Imperial Family is increasingly out of ." He then berated me for walking in touch with social attitudes that have changed the center of the long hallway leading to the enormously, even since the death of the Showa meeting room. "Only his majesty walks in the Emperor () in 1989. center," he said banishing me to the edges of the carpet. In the meeting room we were told The kunaicho-driven pressure on the princess we would have 90 seconds to photograph the to have another child, despite her age and Emperor as he arrived to greet Mr. Ahern. We obviously delicate mental and physical health, should be careful not to make any noises when is representative of a particular conservative

1 2 | 6 | 0 APJ | JF faction in Japan that wants a male heir to Princess Masako's health (much of which preserve the institution at all costs. This faction emerged in marginal publications in Japan or in has never been particularly comfortable with the foreign press) is this: why do the the assertive, cosmopolitan aspects of the mainstream media so utterly fail to reflect this princess' character that have made her a doyen changing landscape? Here I had an opportunity of the foreign press, even though theseto talk to several senior Japanese and foreign qualities put her closer to the prevailing correspondents as well as a number of attitudes and lifestyles of contemporarycommentators on the Imperial scene. In the Japanese women, a majority of whom are second piece, Herbert Bix sets these recent working and delaying marriage and children. developments in their wider context.

That this faction is increasingly at odds with The media and the Imperial Family mainstream opinion in Japan is obvious from the growing popular support for a female By David McNeill emperor, reflected even in mainstream political circles. Yoko Komiyama, shadow minister of For a family that prefers to keep a low profile justice in the opposition Democratic Party of and adopt a kind of bland civil servant image, Japan recently told a foreign reporter that 80 these are trying times for the Imperial percent of the public favored changing the Household. Swathes of the world's dwindling Constitution to allow this: "My opinion is that forests have been felled to fuel media succession should be to the first child, whether speculation on the health of Princess Masako, it is male or female, as this is an age of her relationship with her husband Prince equality." and their struggles to produce a male heir to the world's oldest hereditary institution. All this may or not be the prelude to something Much of the blame for this unwanted attention more fundamental, a questioning of the basic lies with Naruhito himself, who sparked the role of the monarchy perhaps in a country latest media feeding frenzy with a barbed press where such discussion has until now been conference in May.[1] successfully hemmed in by conservative political opinion, a largely pliant media and the Since 1965, the emperor has watched his not insignificant threat of ultra-right violence. offspring bring nine female babies into the The current Emperor is ill with cancer world and not a single male, a poor batting at 70. His 44-year old son Naruhito, Masako's average that once would have been solved by husband, who is next in line to thepressing into service an Imperial womb-for-hire Chrysanthemum , has given many signs (known as 'karibara'). Today, the responsibility that he dislikes the current setup. There has for continuing the purportedly 2600-year been a notable weakening in the taboo-value of patriarchal line has fallen on the frail shoulders the Imperial institution since 1989 and much of of the ex-Ms. Owada Masako. Unsurprisingly, the family's dirty linen is regularly washed in she seems to have buckled under the pressure. public forums such as the weekly female press. No sane commentator would write off an Following her husband's press conference, the institution that is still of enormous symbolic media speculated that the princess was and political value to conservatives in Japan, depressed and had had a nervous breakdown, but clearly significant change looms. possibly following a lapse into the language of the stud farm last year by the Imperial The question explored in the first of the two Household Agency's Grand Steward, Yuasa pieces below inspired by the recent flap over Toshio, who said that he wanted the couple to

2 2 | 6 | 0 APJ | JF have another child. Masako, said the press, still surround the Imperial Family, which are may be refusing to sleep with her husband and very murky and not rational and which have a is terribly worried about her daughter Aiko, lot to do with Japan's war and postwar history. who may have a developmental disorder. This period has not been properly dispelled or Relations between her and the Emperor and digested. There is still unfinished business." Empress are extremely poor and "she is waiting for them to die." Not one reporter ever asked Emperor Hirohito about his responsibility for the war in Asia, But which media are responsible for these potentially one of the great stories of the last stories? Not the big news gatheringhalf-century. This is despite the enormous pool organizations in Japan which despite (or as of journalists assigned to cover the Imperial many prefer to argue, because of) their Household Agency from the press club on the exclusive membership in the IHA press club second floor of its headquarters. According to seldom report major scoops. Famously, it was one former Imperial correspondent for a major the Washington Post that first told the world newspaper: "At any one time about 20 to 25 about Princess Masako's engagement tojournalists from different news organizations Naruhito in 1993, after the local newspapers cover it, but there are hundreds of journalists had sat on the story for months. It was the registered in the IHA press club, in case of an London Independent that suggested in 2001 accident or incident related to the Emperor. In that Princess Aiko was the product of in-vitro our newspaper alone, there are 30 people fertilization, although it was widely rumored in registered. It's a huge club." Japan. And it was The Times that carried most of the above detail about Masako's current These journalists have exclusive access to condition in a May 21st piece called "The briefings by agency officials and Imperial Depression of a Princess." family members, and usually prepare their questions collectively before submitting them It's all part of a long tradition of royal reporting for vetting, shunning most sensitive issues. in Japan by Big Media: kid gloves lobbing the Their dismal performance over the years has softest of softballs to an institution that still earned the establishment press in Japan a seems suspended somewhere between heaven reputation for at best timidity, at worst and earth in the journalistic pantheon. Even incompetence: "The Japanese media industry in Furutachi Ichiro, the new anchor of Japan's general is hopelessly bad at what it does, but flagship liberal news program, Asahi's Hodo the IHA press club shows the worst aspects of Station, decided in the aftermath of the Masako the Japanese media," says Asano Kenichi, flap to criticize the foreign press as fuyukai (lit. professor of journalism at Doshisha University 'disagreeable' but closer in meaning here to and an ex-Kyodo News reporter. "The 'disgusting'), rather than explore the issues it journalists there are not doing their job of raised or, heaven forbid, join hands with his informing the Japanese public about what goes foreign colleagues in trying to exposeon."[2] unaccountable and un-elected power. The correspondents speak As Richard Lloyd Parry, author of the May 21st article says: "Japanese journalists knew all But let's not overestimate the investigative about Masako's illness and it didn't surprise prowess of the foreign press, who rely for all any of them when we spoke to them. So why their stories on local sources, often reporters didn't they run the story? In my view it's working in or close to the IHA press club. "I because of the strange institutional taboos that have great respect for Japanese journalists who

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I count as colleagues and friends, says Lloyd barely picked him up. We could have been Parry. "I couldn't work without the work doing a story on the Yakuza rather than on one already done by these people." Theseof the most boring posts in Japanese journalists, and a host of formerjournalism. Nevertheless, all three correspondents and Imperial watchers, fill the correspondents gave considered, thoughtful vacuum left by the sketchy reporting of Japan's and sometimes surprising replies to most first family by Big Media by feeding 'peripheral' questions. From here on the interviewees will outlets: the weekly and monthly magazines be referred to as Correspondents A, B & C. (excluded from the IHA press club) and the foreign press, endless tidbits of gossip and Two of the journalists had very harsh things to inside information from their privilegedsay about The Times Masako piece. Imperial ringside seats. One way or another, Correspondent A said it was a 'tsukuri-banashi,' much of what goes on beyond the Imperial (lit. a made-up story), another that it was moat finds its way into print, although often in 'laughable.' Correspondent B said there was no a hopelessly distorted and unreliable way.[3] way The Times could have known the things in the article because nobody does, except Sometimes the insiders do this for drinking Masako and a handful of close friends. money, sometimes out of friendship with Correspondent C was more conciliatory and tabloid and other journalists and sometimes out said The Times piece was useful because it had of civic duty in a taboo-ridden system that shaken things up and got a discussion going. many also find frustrating. The currentFor the record, Lloyd Parry stands by the Imperial correspondent for a major Japanese 'fairness and accuracy' of everything in the May newspaper said: "I probably put in writing less 21st article. "Nobody, officially or unofficially, than one-tenth of one-percent of what I see and has come to complain about the story. hear. For a writer, that's a kind of torture. It's a Obviously the information about Masako does real struggle to slow yourself down and just come from a person close to her. And as for the learn to watch." His colleague, who writes for a source of the information about Masako's news agency goes further: "Not everybody relations with the emperor, that was a agrees with me but personally I believe quotation from a Japanese journalist who is in a reporters should leak information when it is position to know. We judged it to be a point of important and they cannot get it published, view representative of more than one person although I don't think they should do it for we interviewed." money or tell lies. It's a because there are many publications that don't have My three interviewees, like all Imperial access." correspondents, have an opportunity to meet the emperor face to face at least once a year in So how do these much-malignedthe Imperial retreat for an correspondents feel about their jobs and the informal chat. Would they question him this recent reporting of the Masako issue? I year (in September) about the Masako affair? interviewed two current and one former IHA All gave an unqualified no. Correspondent A press-club member for this article. Two work said this was part personal (he didn't believe for major newspapers and one for a news that Masako disliked the Emperor), part agency.[4] Although they denied there was any cultural (it's not 'Japanese' to make the other taboo on reporting the Imperial Family, all person deliberately feel uncomfortable in such refused to allow me to use their names, or even a setting) and part political (there was nothing the organizations they work for. One spoke in to be 'gained' by asking such questions, and such a secretive whisper my tape-recorder probably a lot to be lost, implying he would be

4 2 | 6 | 0 APJ | JF thrown out of the press club). Correspondents is our taboo. The Imperial system is still the A & B said that Princess Masako's illness, the backbone of Japan. It's not possible to criticize state of her marriage and the test-tube baby it basically." story are "personal issues." Correspondent B cited the need to be "120 percent accurate on But why not, and why not ask about Masako? If Imperial stories." When questioned why, he a journalist takes six months off work he has to said: "If I make a mistake on a business or provide an explanation. Shouldn't she be held crime story I have to make a formal apology. If accountable? Correspondent B agreed but I make a mistake on a story about the emperor, explained the dilemma of Imperial the head of the newspaper has to apologize." correspondents as follows: "It's no good arguing that we should treat the Imperial Prof. Asano feels these answers are evasive. Family like ordinary people. We have to accept "The need for 120 percent accuracy is a double what is special about these people. This doesn't standard because they don't act this way for mean that we have to respect them just other stories. If they are unsure, they should because they're the Imperial Family, but we ask someone in authority for their opinion and have to accept the objective truth that they are a quote. They should provide the information different. They're not like television talent. and let ordinary readers decide forLegally they're special. The constitution says themselves." As for the issue of privacy, Prof. these people have no legal rights. They have no Asano is even more blunt: "The Imperial Family political power. The Emperor can't walk away is the ultimate symbol of Japan and they need a from his job. All he can do it pray. That's his male successor, so they shouldn't have any job. It's really quite cruel. But that is the secrets from the public, and this includes their objective truth within which we operate and we sexual activities." Richard Lloyd Parry agrees have to respect that." that some issues, including Masako's depression, are 'private' but adds: "We heard Who cares? the story about Masako's illness in January or February but decided not to use it because it Does any of this matter? Interest in the was a personal matter. But in May when her Imperial Family in Japan is low and declining. husband blamed the Imperial Household for Most young people do not even know the name her illness the question was in the public of the man who is married to Princess Masako. domain, and you couldn't understand the story Polls show that even the social attitudes of fully until you got the rest of the information. those who are interested have left behind an So at that stage we decided to run it." institution that is, in the words of Professor Herbert Bix, "totally out of sync with the times" All the correspondents claimed, however, that and one that "can no longer function as a if they had a story that was judged important model, let alone a symbol of national unity." enough they would write it. Asked to give an The taboo on reporting Imperial issues, all the example, Correspondent A said if the IHA Imperial correspondents claim, has declined announced that Masako had indeed had a since the death of controversial war Emperor nervous breakdown but asked journalists not to Hirohito. Better then, perhaps, to let the write it, he would ignore them. But he was not emperor and his family fade gently from sure it would get past his editors: "Newspapers history. in Japan are very conservative. The managers are usually in their fifties and sixties. They're Dr. Ivan Hall, author of Cartels of the Mind, afraid of the ultra-right. You have taboos in wonders if they will: "Many of us worry about Islamic societies and in Christian societies. This the monarchy here, because they are what

5 2 | 6 | 0 APJ | JF gives the nationalist right its respectable On May 10, 2004, before leaving on a short center. It is the ultimate linchpin of the myth of European tour, Japan's Naruhito Japanese uniqueness, because the emperor is disclosed at a press conference that his wife, supposed to be descended from the gods, and Princess Masako, who had earlier withdrawn the lodestar for the most repressive ideas of from official duties, had "completely exhausted racial superiority." The Imperial Household is herself" and was unable to accompany him. For also backed by powerful sections of the this he blamed her surroundings. "[T]here were Japanese establishment, including manymoves to reject Masako's career [as a diplomat] members of the LDP and the Association of and her character," he complained to stunned Shrines, a powerful right-wingjournalists gathered at his Togu Detached organization that represents some 20,000 Palace in Tokyo. His heart-felt words Shinto priests. immediately ignited debate. For Naruhito spoke as an aggrieved husband, defending his Which leads to a final thesis. Perhaps Big partner's right to freedom and dignity under Media in Japan, rather than informing the the postwar constitution. Never before in Japanese public about the Imperial Family and public had that been done. Could the bring it down to earth, as say the British press really have lost control of the has to its monarchy over the last two decades, Crown Prince's image? helps to protect it and ensure its aura of "mystery" and uniqueness. As evidence, take Immediately some royal watchers deduced that the famous (at least outside Japan) incident on either the Imperial Household Agency or December 18, 2001 when Emperor Akihito, in Emperor Akihito and , were to the middle of a period of bitter controversy blame for her poor health. A careful observer of about history textbooks, spoke in detail about the Japanese scene, Richard Lloyd Parry his own Korean roots.[5] The speech was front- writing in the London Times, cited this page news in Korea but barely made the inside allegation of a Japanese journalist, offered in pages of two Japanese newspapers: the Asahi the wake of Naruhito's cryptic statement. To and Sankei. Prof. Asano believes he knows why. wit: "Masako has become an imperial drop- "The newspapers here were too worried about out." She is "hostile towards the Emperor the implications of that speech and the reaction [Akihito] and the Empress [Michiko], and . . . from nationalists so they ignored it. The only waiting for them to die. It sounds horrible and reason why the Asahi and Sankei published it is shocking. But this is the truth of what's because they publish all press conferences on happening inside the Crown Prince's household their Web sites so somebody spotted it there." and the public doesn't know about."

At least one Imperial correspondent agrees. "If Actually, the Japanese public senses only too you want to argue that we protect the mystery well that the current state of the imperial (shimpiteki na bubun) of the Imperial Family, I family is a picture of unhappiness. Equally well think we do. But no matter what we do the understood, especially by Japanese officials family will have to reform. And the more they who have a vested interest in preserving it, is reform the more the mystery will decline. the monarchy fragile nature. Since the Meiji That's their dilemma." era, succession and image problems have beset the modern patriarchal institution. Writers who The Troubled Imperial Family and the understand the historical roots of the Constitution monarchy's deepest problems have emphasized the consciously intended, political nature of By Herbert P. Bix Naruhito's statement. Seki Hirono, in his article

6 2 | 6 | 0 APJ | JF in the Asahi shimbun (satellite edition), June Consider how marital patterns and lifestyles 12, 2004, for example, claimed that anhave changed since General MacArthur, partly "isolated" prince was attempting to highlight for his own short-term political reasons and the overly close connection between the partly in compliance with Truman postwar-reformed monarchy and the Japanese administration policy, had the monarchy state, and draw attention to the failure of the written into the . Today Constitution of Japan to guarantee the human marriage occurs late, divorces are frequent, rights of imperial family members. In an women have fewer children, and many women indirect way Seki was also coming down on the continue to work after marriage. Conversely, side of constitutional reform. an increasing number of men take part in child rearing and contribute to housework. In this Recent Japanese public opinion polls suggest twenty-first century society, with its diverse the underlying social changes behind the male and female lifestyles, the imperial family Crown Prince's remarks of May 10. For the (thus by extension, the politically powerless past several years, polls have shown a major monarchy) can no longer function as a model, change on the issue of a woman emperor. In let alone a symbol of national unity. Nor can the first survey on this issue (Kyodo Tsushin, the older, masculine-type of public discourse on December 1975) 54.7 percent of respondents the emperor have much appeal when the said the emperor had to be a male and 31.9 psychology to support it is eroding and the percent said that it was OK if a female became Imperial Household Law that undergirds the emperor. Fourteen years later, shortly after the imperial institution is totally out of sync with death of the Showa Emperor Hirohito, the the times. majority of Japanese still favored male succession. But by the late 1990s, that trend Perhaps this is why the ruling Liberal had reversed, with nearly 50 percent of Democratic Party so strongly supports the respondents in a Kyodo survey favoring a compulsory singing in the public schools of the female emperor and less than a third wanting national anthem (Kimigayo) and the display of the throne limited to a male. the national flag (hinomaru). Anthem and flag, not the emperor, have become the real symbols This trend grew stronger after December 2002, of contemporary Japan. Should one conclude, when Princess Masako, under great pressure to then, that "nationalism without the emperor" produce a male heir to the throne, miscarried. has finally come into its own? Certainly the When she finally gave birth to a baby girl, Aiko, possibility is there, which is why revision of the in November 2002, nearly 69 percent of all Imperial House Law to allow for female respondents favored a female emperor; only 3.7 succession can realistically be imagined. And percent opposed the idea. Today more than 80 although no party is proposing the emperor's percent of the Japanese people are eager to deletion from the constitution, that idea too has move into an era of female . The been publicly aired. Neo-nationalist political Crown Prince's defense of Masako can only entrepreneurs bridle at such talk, of course. strengthen this trend. They still see use-value in the constitutionally- guaranteed monarchy, and have not abandoned If the imperial institution, not to mention the the idea of manipulating the imperial house for whole heritage of monarchy itself, has become political purposes. more burdensome for the royals than for the Japanese people, does this not reflect the Nevertheless, the discussion of female deeper changes that have occurred in Japanese succession to the throne has become part of society over the past sixty years? Japan's constitutional revision debate, along

7 2 | 6 | 0 APJ | JF with proposals to jettison Japan's peaceBritish press shared a similar attitudes to the principle, inscribed in the preamble and Article Queen and her family. As old footage of BBC 9. Some of the strongest friends ofinterviews with members of the British royal institutionalizing female emperors are gathered family make clear, obsequiousness was a job in the newly ascendant Democratic Party, requirement for court reporters. Like their which looks forward to rewriting theJapanese counterparts, British publications also constitution in its entirety. As the major sometimes relied on foreign publications like conservative parties in the ruling coalition Paris Match to broach royal topics before they forge a popular mandate for constitutional felt able to cover them. It is only in the last 20 revision, heavy-handed U.S. pressureyears that royal taboos in the UK have tumbled complicates their internal disagreements. amid intense tabloid competition for a Under the leadership of LDP Prime Minister dwindling readership, led by the Murdoch- Koizumi Junichiro, Japan has unknowingly owned Sun, a newspaper percolated by anti- allied with America's religious wars and is royal sentiment, despite the often fawning cooperating with the Bush administration's language used to refer to the Windsor family. 'world-threatening' plans for the militarization See Peter Chippendale and Chris Horrie of space. And so their debate goes on with the (1998), Stick it up your Punter: The Uncut Japanese people morally disadvantaged by their Story of the “Sun” Newspaper, Pocket Books. U.S. alliance. How these issues play out in the future is bound to shape the nature of the 4. The Big Media correspondents are usually imperial institution and, indeed, the nature of assigned to the IHA press club on rotation, Japanese politics. often in two-year intervals. There is much speculation about the selection procedure; ©Herbert P. Bix some critics such as Prof. Asano say only the elite and the ideologically safe are allowed to stand in the shadows of Imperial family 1. The full text of Prince Naruhito’s remarks members, although Correspondent C said he can be found on the Imperial Household was known in his newspaper for his anti- Agency’s Web siteroyalist views.at: http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/press-crown/prince2 004-0510.html. The cast of characters behind 5. Among other things, Emperor Akihito said he the Imperial Moat and their proper titles can be read in an eighth-century official history found document that the mother ofat: Emperor Kammu http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Imperial_Hou (736-806) was of the line of King Muryong, who sehold_of_Japan ruled one of three ancient kingdoms on the peninsula. 2. Interesting to note here that South Korea, which has a similar, much-criticized press club David McNeill is a free-lance writer and system, has recently begun to dismantle it. See teacher living in Tokyo. N. Onishi, “South Korea Dissolves Ties That Once Bound the Press to the Powerful,” New Herbert Bix, Professor of History at York Times, 13 June, 2004 Binghamton University, is the author of the Pulitzer Award-winning book Hirohito and the 3. It should be noted too that for years the Making of Modern Japan.

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