Even asking parliament to change the law to allow him to retire could be seen as a breach of the strict taboo of intervention in politics. So Japan’s Emperor Akihito (82), in his televised address to the nation on Monday, did so in the most oblique way he could. “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, leaving it to his people to read between the lines. But if the Pope can retire, why not an emperor?
However, in case his people might be inclined to suggest a regency, the passing of official duties but not the crown to his son Prince Naruhito (56), Akihito indicated he did not wish to be a monarch who "continues to be the emperor till the end of his life, even though he is unable to fully carry out his duties".
The problem facing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who appears sympathetic to the idea of amending the law to allow abdication, is that a debate will inevitably reopen the issue of female succession – Naruhito's only offspring is a girl (though he has a male nephew). That is a prospect strongly opposed by conservative nationalists in Abe's Liberal Democratic Party.
The Chrysanthemum Throne has been held continuously by Akihito's family for almost 2,700 years. He is the 125th emperor in a line that extends back to the country's founding in 600 BC by the Emperor Jimmu who, legend has it, was descended from the sun goddess. The current law which says an emperor serves until death – Japan is the only country to retain an emperor – makes no provision for abdication which was common among emperors until the 19th century. At the end of the second World War, however, as part of the surrender, Akihito's father, Hirohito, renounced what he called the "the false conception that the emperor is divine", a key rationale for the idea that once an emperor, always an emperor.
Opinion polls suggest up to 85 per cent of voters favour amending the Imperial Household Law to allow their aged emperor to step aside.