As Emperor Akihito stands aside, Simon Tisdall looks back at other notable departures
Redundant royals have been disposed of in various grisly and ingenious ways over the centuries. Beheading was fashionable at one time, as Mary, Queen of Scots, discovered in 1587. Revolution, assassination and death in battle were other popular methods.
Continue reading...Prime minister Abe says royal couple ‘shared in joys and sorrows’ of Japanese people
Emperor Akihito has thanked the people of Japan for their support during his 30-year reign and said he hopes his successor’s time on the chrysanthemum throne will be “stable and fruitful”, as he becomes the country’s first monarch to abdicate in two centuries.
Speaking at a brief ceremony in the state room of the imperial palace a day before his eldest son, Naruhito, ascends the throne, the 85-year-old said he was praying for peace and happiness for the people of Japan.
Continue reading...Emperor becomes Japan’s first monarch to give up the throne in two centuries. In a brief ceremony at the imperial palace in Tokyo, Akihito, 85, says his 30-year reign was a ‘great blessing’ and expresses his hope for the ‘peace and happiness of people in Japan and around the world’
Continue reading...The Ainu of Hokkaido in Japan were not officially recognised as an indigenous people until 2008. This recognition came after a long history of exclusion and assimilation that almost erased their society, language and culture. Photographer Laura Liverani collaborated with members of the Ainu for this exhibition called Coexistences: Portraits of Today’s Japan, showing at the The Japan Foundation, Sydney until 21 June.
Continue reading...After 30 years on the throne, Emperor Akihito is to abdicate on 30 April and his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, will officially accede on 1 May. The 85-year-old emperor is the first in two centuries to stand down. His reign began on 7 January 1989, following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito
Continue reading...Japan has paused. In preparation for the abdication of the old emperor, and the accession of the new, companies and government offices are closed, and it is the duty of dutiful workers to stay at home; even the calendar will change. Ever since 1989 (as we count), official Japanese documents have counted years up from the year Heisei 1. On 1 May the year will reset, and babies, until then born in the year Heisei 31, will instead be born in Reiwa 1; and the years will continue to be numbered through Reiwa until the new emperor dies or abdicates.
The convention of dating events by reference to reigns, or periods of office, is not unique to Japan. In fact it was once almost universal. It reaches back as far as organised politics. In Greece, the Spartans dated by their kings, the Athenians by their judges; and the Roman republic counted from the mythical foundation of the city. None of these conventions survived the crumbling of the political structures that they both commemorated and upheld. That is why later Christians, amid the chaos of local rulers that followed the fall of the Roman empire, had to invent the dating system we still use.
Continue reading...Tokyo court grants bail to senior executive who has branded raft of allegations ‘a conspiracy’
A court in Tokyo has granted bail to Carlos Ghosn, days after prosecutors charged the former Nissan chairman for a fourth time over allegations he misused company funds.
Bail was set at 500m yen ($4.5m), according the the Tokyo district court.
Continue reading...Survivors will receive £22,000 each in compensation for their suffering under eugenics law
Japan’s government has issued an apology and awarded compensation to thousands of people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilised under a now defunct eugenics law.
As part of legislation that passed parliament’s upper house on Wednesday, surviving victims will each receive ¥3.2m (£22,000) to compensate for their suffering, as well as an apology from the state “for the great physical and mental suffering caused by the forced sterilisation programme”.
Continue reading...Japan still dominates the global cultured pearl market, despite a fall in specialised pearl farmers. In the past 10 years it has produced annually about 20 tonnes of farmed pearls
Continue reading...Emperor Akihito will become first Japanese monarch to abdicate in more than 200 years
The imperial palace grounds in central Tokyo are bathed in spring sunshine. Joggers completing circuits of the moat artfully dodge groups of foreign tourists. Office workers tuck into lunches of onigiri rice balls and tea.
On the other side of the moat, hidden behind lines of trees, the palace is preparing for a historical transition. Early in the evening of 30 April, Emperor Akihito will enter the building’s state room and, in the presence of the grand chamberlain, the prime minister and other senior politicians, become the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in more than 200 years.
Continue reading...Mother of Ryusuke Sekino said: ‘It seemed he would break if I touched him. I was so worried’
When Ryusuke Sekino was born last October, his mother feared that even touching him could prove dangerous for his tiny frame.
Six months later, Ryusuke, believed to be the world’s smallest surviving baby boy, is preparing to leave hospital in central Japan on Saturday after his weight increased from 258g (9.1oz) at birth – roughly the weight of a pack of butter – to more than 3kg.
Continue reading...Tatsunori Iwamura reportedly admitted getting students in his pharmaceutical class at Japanese university to make illegal drug
A Japanese university professor could face up to 10 years in prison after allegedly teaching his students how to produce MDMA to “further their knowledge” of pharmaceuticals, according to reports.
Tatsunori Iwamura, 61, has been likened to Walter White, the fictional chemistry teacher in the cult TV series Breaking Bad who starts manufacturing crystal meth after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.
Continue reading...Workers begin to empty storage pool – but more critical removal of melted fuel from reactors themselves will be more challenging
Workers at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have begun removing fuel rods from a storage pool near one of the three reactors that suffered meltdowns eight years ago.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said on Monday that work had begun to remove the first of 566 used and unused fuel assemblies in reactor building No 3.
Continue reading...Prosecutors trying to force confession out of former Nissan chairman, says defence team
Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers have condemned his latest arrest as “inhuman”, claiming it has interrupted his treatment for chronic kidney failure and that prosecutors were attempting to force a confession out of the former Nissan chairman.
According to Reuters, Ghosn’s defence team said in documents prepared after he was arrested for a fourth time last week that Japanese prosecutors were attempting to frustrate their preparations for his trial – a date for which has yet to be set – and trying to force him to confess.
Continue reading...Parts of Okuma are open for business once again, but only a few hundred former residents have moved home
A town next to the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant partially reopened on Wednesday, eight years after a triple meltdown forced tens of thousands of people in the area to flee.
About 40% of Okuma, which sits immediately west of the plant, was declared safe for residents to make a permanent return after decontamination efforts significantly reduced radiation levels.
Continue reading...In video message ex-chairman says he is innocent and talks of fears for company’s future
Carlos Ghosn has accused Nissan executives of conspiring to have him arrested over unfounded fears about his plans for the Japanese carmaker, and saying he had been unfairly portrayed as a “dictator” by “backstabbing” former colleagues.
In a video recorded shortly before he was rearrested in Tokyo last week, the former Nissan chairman said he looked forward to a fair trial – a date for which has yet to be set – and he feared for Nissan’s future.
Continue reading...Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa opened meeting with a speech outlining allegations against his former mentor
Nissan shareholders have voted to eject Carlos Ghosn from the board, as the detained former chairman fights multiple financial misconduct charges that have landed him in custody.
The extraordinary shareholders’ meeting at a Tokyo hotel was the first such gathering since the stunning arrest of the 65-year-old auto sector titan on 19 November.
Continue reading...Former Nissan chairman says prosecutors are trying to ‘break him’ with latest move
Carlos Ghosn has been put back under arrest over allegations he misused company funds, prompting the former Nissan chairman to angrily denounce his detention as “outrageous and arbitrary”.
Japanese TV showed prosecutors arriving at Ghosn’s apartment in Tokyo, less than a month after he was freed on bail following more than 100 days in detention.
Continue reading...Some workers view special 10-day break with horror, worrying how to fill the time and concerned that tourist sites will be overcrowded
An enforced, extra-long holiday is the stuff that most tired out employees dream of. But in Japan the prospect of an uninterrupted break to mark the emperor’s abdication later this month has been met with a mixture of horror and consternation.
Japan will begin the unprecedented holiday on 27 April, days before Emperor Akihito abdicates to make way for his eldest son, Naruhito, whose Reiwa reign will begin on 1 May. The holiday will finally end on 6 May.
Continue reading...Australia’s global leadership on whale conservation will be tested as Japanese hunters move to a different hemisphere
Japan’s whaling fleet arrived back at the port of Shimonoseki on the weekend with a barbaric tally of 333 dead whales that are no longer swimming freely in the Southern Ocean.
If the work of the Japanese whalers is anything like last year, more than 100 pregnant females and 50 or so juveniles will have been killed. But from now on, things are different.
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