Your insight is as always interesting and well founded, ChiaraC
Thank you very much!
But do people actually take notice, when the Emperor "speaks between the lines"?
It depends, of course, on which people. It seems that many Japanese are not overly interested in the imperial family which probably also means that they usually won´t take much notice of what they say. But the video message of the emperor last year was an exception. As
Japan blogger Michael Cucek remarked, “pretty much alone among public institutions, the Imperial Family has performed flawlessly since the disaster of 3/11.“ The emperor´s speeches concerning the disaster got a lot of attention, nationally as well as internationally.
The emperor went on television in an unprecedented address to the people, calling on them to work together to overcome the "difficult times." All the royals, including Masako, have visited the disaster area more than once.
Should Naruhito ascend the throne in the near future, he may oversee recovery from the crisis, said Kodama [Miiko Kodama, a professor at Musashi University in Tokyo]. Support for environmental conservation may also be a priority.
Simply being there in a time of change could also be enough.
"They serve in some intangible but still significant sense as a unifying force," said Ruoff [Kenneth Ruoff, director of the Centre for Japanese Studies at Portland State University and author of a book on Emperor Hirohito]. "So in one sense, when he came on television during the earthquake, that was the quintessential sense of him playing that sort of unifying role."
Reuters
And when it comes to “reading between the lines” I am sure that most Japanese will be much more capable of doing that than Westerners (that is, if they pay attention to the emperor´s words in the first place). It is part of the Japanese culture to express things, especially potentially controversial things, in an indirect manner. Without an explanation, Westerners would hardly understand why it was so sensational that the crown prince would accuse unnamed persons of having “negated his wife´s personality and career”. In contrast, the Japanese journalists who were present at the press conference understood immediately that the prince´s statement would create a scandal.
And isn't there a difference this time in the sense that the figures for the radiation level around the Fukushima plant are "interesting"? Radiation being something that can really freak out people. Even famously stoic Japanese?
I have no idea what it will finally take for the Japanese to resist their political and social elites. But the problem could be in this case that the victims who live in temporary housing are not in a position to pull off an effective political movement. On the other hand, the Japanese who do not come from the disaster area may believe the government´s lies. After all, it is human to ask less questions when it is not really your problem. So they may choose to believe that those who say that the governments figures are wrong are just being “troublemakers” which is a rather common reaction in Japan. You just do not rock the boat there.
However, quite frankly, I think it is very hard to predict what will happen in this case. I am no expert concerning radiation, and I have not really checked in detail the reports about the level of radiation at Fukushima. I do have the impression that if they did send people back, it would become clear in a relatively short space of time that humans cannot live there without lasting and severe damage to their health, and in particular, to that of their offspring. But I may be completely wrong.
I wonder if the establishment misjudge Crown Prince Naruhito. Remember King Juan Carlos? He was put in place by the Franco regime. An amiable man who wouldn't rock the boat. A man of the system. - Well, he was, but not of the old system.
Actually, when I came to be more familiar with the Japan´s monarchy, I have felt strongly reminded of King Juan Carlos, too.
We have the very interesting situation in Japan that the monarchy as an institution is (considering its history as well as its fiercest defenders) undemocratic or even antidemocratic (see for example
the story about the severed finger). There is this famous quote by Herbert Bix who wrote Pulitzer-price winning “Hirohito and the making of modern Japan”: “The monarchy is a brake on any hopes of deepening Japanese democracy and making it real. As long as it exists, democracy has quotes around it.” On the other hand, the individuals who occupy the throne/will occupy it in the near future are clearly democrats. In the above mentioned article, the New York Times wrote: “If anything, Akihito's well-known distrust of ultranationalists is seen as a kind of guarantee against their ever trying to overthrow the Government in his name.” (I have once written a blog that deals exactly with that paradox, to be found
here.) While Japan´s ultranationalists do not seem at all prone to give up the monarchy as their main symbol, it is clear that, at present, it is them who profit the most from the fact that the emperor is not allowed to meddle with politics (not even to the degree that, for example, the Queen is allowed to do that). All their hopes rest on the emperor keeping his mouth shut...
I have read an interesting
article about the granddaughter of Japan’s wartime leader Hideki Tojo, Yuko Tojo. She speaks too openly about the traditionalist ways of thinking as to be an official leader of the ultranationalist forces in Japan, but I think it rather likely that although those leaders would probably be too clever to say that sort of things in public, this may be more or less what they secretly think: Tojo blandy refutes the idea that the tenno is a symbol of Japan (that has been taught in the postwar period) as insulting. According to her, "He is the essence of Japan (
kokka genshi). He is nothing at all like a US president. He is Japan." But when asked about the present emperor´s remarks regarding his Korean roots she quite clearly disapproves of his attitude in the matter: "I know nothing about his roots, but I was astonished that he said such a thing. His majesty [meaning Emperor Hirohito] would never have said such a thing. He knew the limits of what to say. The current Crown Prince (Naruhito) chatters away about everything. As the national essence (
kokka genshi) he has to know what to say. He has to maintain the dignity [
igen] of the Imperial Family."
Personally, I find Tojo´s statements absurd to the point of comedy.
Obviously, “the essence of Japan” would be unable to do anything „un-Japanese“. (Otherwise the term does not make any sense whatsoever.) Tojo would have the choice to either call the tenno the “essence of Japan” which would deprive her of any right to criticize his actions - even if she should be unable to fathom their wisdom...
OR Tojo could say that the persons who are sitting on and ascending to the chrysanthemum throne are quite simply human beings (whom she would be free to criticize). But then it would obviously not be insulting to call them a mere symbol of Japan. Tojo, in contrast, insists on having her cake and eating it at the same time. The reason for this is, of course, that without the backing of the superhuman aura of the tenno, Tojo could not claim her opinions to be any more than just her opinions that are as important or unimportant as the opinions of everybody else. By styling herself as the dutiful servant of a mystical imperial essence, she can uphold her pretensions on infallibility.
It is just bad luck for her and makes it clearly visible how contradictory her position is that the actual occupier of the chrysanthemum throne does not happen to share her
views...
