Many thanks...I'll enjoy it too. The sad think it's that when articles like these ones begins to appear, it's a clear shown than Monarchy in a country is near to its end.
Vanesa.
The article is 3 years old!!! The monarchy is Japan is not under any threat of coming to an end, even the article itself says that the Japanese Imperial Family have a higher level of support that European monarchies. David MacNeill is a foreign journalist using his western values and trying to apply them to the Japanese landscape, in this case the Imperial Family. He's asking the type of questions ( are the royals relevant? expense of the monarchy should the monarchy be abolished?) that westerners ask in relation to royals in general and expected the kind of access that far more PR conscious European royals give to the media.
The Japanese themselves don't ask these questions, there is no call for discussion on whether the royals are relevant or not. Japanese range from the ultra right wing who argue forcefully Imperial Family to remain totally unchanged to the more apathetic ( generally the young) who have little interest in the Imperial Family and despite that see no reason to get rid of them as they are a tradition and have always been part of Japanese life.
Expense? Well the only one who has suffered criticism of the cost to the Japanese taxpayer is Masako ( in the last year) She's been criticised as she's well enough to go out to dinner and socialise but still the number of official engagements she carries out are minimal. Also the 2 week holiday in The Netherlands came under some criticism, especially in a country where no employee is able to take a 2 week vacation. ( Japanese are entitled to 10 vacation days a year but can only take them in groups of 5 days and then 6 months later another 5 days) The criticism was along the lines of " taxpayers are paying for her to go on a foreign holiday" Japanese royals only holiday in Japan, the Emperor and Empress have never had a foreign holiday, only breaks at the holiday villas in Japan and unlike the British Queen's holidays in Balmoral, these holidays are not 2 months long, but a few days.
The journalistic scene in Japan is a fairly closed one, so the fact that journalists can be excluded from the Imperial news conferences isn't just due to the IHA. Journalists can and are ( particularly foreign journalists)excluded from government press conferences and other official press conferences. The Japanese union of journalists keep a tight grip on access which the foreign journalists frequently complain about. Imperial press conferences are just one example, but not the only case.
The article appeared in various publications as well as the Japanese newsweek and yet there was no fallout from it. There's been no springing up of a republican movement, no press articles asking for a debate of the relevance of the Imperial Family in Japan. No reaction, as for the Japanese it did not reflect their attitudes to their monarchy.
