Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrive at the National Theatre Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of his coronation.
POOL PHOTO

Emperor, on 20th anniversary of accession, concerned young people forgetting history

Thursday 12th November, 07:30 AM JST

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NationalistRE at 08:24 PM JST - 12th November

Japan's inability to resign itself from being part of the Iraq War in order to maintain good ties with Washington pretty much sums up how serious this nation is devoted learning from WWII.
NationalistRE at 08:25 PM JST - 12th November

Japan's inability to resign itself from being part of the Iraq War in order to maintain good ties with Washington pretty much sums up how serious this nation is devoted learning from WWII.

My bad, it DID learn from the war that upsetting Washington=Japan in trouble.
ilcub76 at 09:12 PM JST - 12th November

The Emperor IS living history. Growing up in the imperial palace during war time must have been difficult, especially being the target of US bombs.

I read different versions of this article on other websites, and both the Emperor and Empress try to connect with the common person. At a disaster relief center, they sat on the floor and talked with victims, holding the victims' hands at the surprise of the Imperial Household Agency and those around the Imperial couple.

As for his father's role in World War II, historians are still divided as to whether Hirohito (Showa) started many of the problems, or if he was the fall guy for the politicans and military leaders of the time. When Hirohito (Showa) was young, he went to the battlefields of World War I (Verdun) and saw what war could do.

I believe the Emperor when he talks about his father and how he felt. None of us (or the Japanese) really know how Hirohito (Showa) felt about war and peace. The only one who really knows is his son.
ptolemy at 02:09 AM JST - 13th November

Does the IHA know he said this? Did the IHA approve of this before hand? If not he'll be grounded for a while. No more walkies round the big pond, and they'll take away his microscope too.
Triple888 at 04:39 AM JST - 13th November

Seeing countless numbers of brainwashed nationalistic Japanese on popular websites such as YouTube, it is right that the emperor's message should be said.
M51T at 05:27 AM JST - 13th November

"Although Akihito has visited China, he has yet to travel to South Korea, largely because of lingering animosities over the war."

If the Emperor did visit SK, he'd find that young Koreans are forgetting (or ignoring) their history too, and that the animosity is dissipating.

However, the Emperor is displaying the very thing he is worried about: a reluctance of confronting an external viewpoint of Japan.
usaexpat at 06:51 AM JST - 13th November

The people who are conerned with Japan's "whitewashing" of history might be interested to know that the average highscool kid knows zero about history either reality or the whitewashed version. Aorund the world kids are ignoarant about world history. Without knowledge of the past we are doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes.
diggerdog at 08:57 AM JST - 13th November

One other "excuse" as it were is that the Imperial family (not royal) is supported taxes paid by people in Japan. If the law were changed to allow an Empress on the throne again, taxes would have to pick up the tab for all the other female members of the Imperial family. That means ALL the offshoots. Which is a LOT of poeple. Which means a HUGE tax burden.

Are you going to help pay for that?

hell no, get a bloody job like the rest of us. OR they could just give the tax money to the top guys and girls and not everyone which is what happens in the UK, where my tax money also goes to help the already rich get richer. But lets face it even if they all got a bit of money its not exactly going to hugely increase the tax bill of 120 million people is it?.
The758 at 09:04 AM JST - 13th November

Growing up in the imperial palace during war time must have been difficult, especially being the target of US bombs.

OT but, when was the imperial palace ever bombed?
chotto at 12:50 PM JST - 13th November

...They will also realise that nobody cares about them, just like the brits couldnt give a toss about the royal family. Then they will be just live off their name like harry and william do.

WRONG.

Pariliament and (for example) the expenses scandal is LIVING PROOF why we need a Monarch.
zaichik at 07:03 PM JST - 13th November

"Coronated" is not a word, JT!
zaichik at 07:05 PM JST - 13th November

"Coronated" is not a word, JT!

My apologies - further research suggests that it is a word. But you have to admit, it's a damned odd one, even given the noun "coronation".
chuckers at 10:32 AM JST - 16th November

But lets face it even if they all got a bit of money its not exactly going to hugely increase the tax bill of 120 million people is it?

Take a look at the annual budget for the imperial household:

http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/kunaicho/kunaicho/yosan-ichiran.html

Those numbers you see there have a unit of 10,000.

The imperial family has an allowance of JPY 280,910,000 this year. That is just the immediate family. Add in the extended family, and that is going to be quite a sizeable chunk. And it won't just be the allowance that goes up. All the other numbers on that page will increase as well because there will be more office drones required to look after the paperwork.
LFRAgain at 04:39 PM JST - 18th November

cor⋅o⋅nate [kawr-uh-neyt, kor-] adjective, verb, -nat⋅ed, -nat⋅ing. –adjective
1. having or wearing a crown, coronet, or the like.

–verb (used with object)

2. to crown (a sovereign).

Origin: 1840–50; < L corōnātus ptp. of corōnāre to CROWN, equiv. to corōn(a) crown + -ātus -ATE 1
nandakandamanda at 06:31 PM JST - 18th November

LFRAgain, re JT and "coronate" (Mods, don't erase this for a while as it has taken me some time to write this! Thanks. Please pass on to the writer.)

Coronate (verb) In the sense 'to crown', coronate [formed regularly from the pple of L. coronare] has been current in technical and semi-technical language, esp in botany and zoology, since the 17c. In Britain the word is never used as a synonym of 'to crown' [a monarch]. Sporadic instances of such use have been noted in the US.

Burchfield's "New Fowler's Modern English Usage" p 183