In a rare televised speech, Japan’s Emperor Akihito has addressed his people directly about his declining health.
“I am already 80 years old, and fortunately I am now in good health,” said the monarch, who turns 83 in December.
“However, when I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the State with my whole being as I have done until now,” he said.
Japanese people stopped in the street, gathering to watch the historic address in public on big outdoor screens.
This is the third time a Japanese emperor has spoken to the public in the television and radio era.
Emperor Hirohito announced by radio that Japan lost World War II and Akihito, his son, addressed the nation on TV after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Akihito said that he may appoint a regent, most likely his son Crown Prince Naruhito, to serve in his place if he is seriously ill or incapacitated.
Japan’s postwar constitution requires the emperor serve in the position until death. If he becomes incapacitated, his successor can act as regent, according to the constitution.
Akihito is Japan’s 125th emperor and records claim the imperial line has been unbroken for 14 centuries.
Abdication rumors
Many predicted that Akihito would use Monday’s speech to hint that he would be abdicating, after rumors surfaced last month.
The emperor’s eldest son, 56-year-old Naruhito, is next in line to the throne and has already taken on some of his father’s duties. In May, the IHA announced Akihito and Empress Michiko, 81, would reduce their public appearances due to old age.
In recent years, the emperor has suffered from declining health. Heart surgery and treatment for cancer have taken a toll on his ability to carry out his duties.
“It was some years ago, after my two surgeries that I began to feel a decline in my fitness level because of my advancing age, and I started to think about the pending future, how I should conduct myself should it become difficult for me to carry out my heavy duties in the way I have been doing, and what would be best for the country, for the people, and also for the Imperial Family members who will follow after me,” Akhitio said during his speech.
The emperor and empress have long maintained a demanding schedule of more than 250 public meetings per year and 75 annual trips within and outside of Japan, the IHA said in May. But more than 100 of those meetings per year will now be canceled or reassigned to the crown prince.
Compared to other international monarchies, Japan’s imperial household tends to keep a relatively low profile.
A boon for Abe?
Any change to the Imperial Household Law would require approval by Japan’s parliament, which at the moment is focused on controversial revisions to the country’s pacifist constitution.
The abdication issue could have been a distracted from the constitutional changes being championed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition and spur a debate over Japan’s succession, including if women should be allowed to ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy.
A Japanese monarch has not stepped down in about 200 years, but abdication hardly unprecedented in Japanese history. Nearly half of Japan’s emperors quit the throne while alive, according to Japanese state broadcaster NHK.
Once revered as a living God, the Japanese emperor became a ceremonial figure in Japan’s constitutional monarchy after World War Two. Occupying forces seized much of the imperial family’s wealth and today parliament controls the household’s annual budget and allowances, which total well over $100 million.