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.
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.
Abolish monarchies
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.
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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.
