Vasily Golovnin: "Emperor wants to be a man"

"The planned sensation took place today at three in the afternoon of Tokyo time - on all Japanese television channels showed a video of the 10 -minute appeal of Emperor Akihito, who in almost open text stated that he intends to renounce the throne," the journalist in the blog on the website of the Echo of Moscow radio station.

“Rather, the very word“ renunciation ”was not sounded, since such an action is not provided for by law - it sternly assumes that the monarch is resting with his death only with his death. Therefore, Akihito stated that he simply wants to express his painful thoughts as an individual, and this may have become the main sensation - the current emperor calmly and without a tear repeated that the American occupation authorities forced to do in 1946 in 1946 The year of his father, now the deceased Emperor Hirochito.

Then he made a special statement, abandoning rather vague expressions from his previous status of the "God -man", as a direct descendant of the goddess of the Sun Amateras. This was important, since the cult of the heavenly emperor was the core of the hysterical fascizoid ideology of militaristic aggressive Japan, who capitulated in August 1945. Now, the current monarch, 82-year-old Akihito, is already calmly stating that he would like, as a simple person, as one of the millions of elderly people of his country, simply remind that he is already old, loses strength and cannot fully fulfill his duties established by the current post-war constitution.

And the emperor in it is not the head of state and the sovereign, as it was in the old, defeated by Japan, but the "symbol of the state and the unity of the people." And in this capacity, he receives foreign guests, makes visits, opens sports competitions, visits and encourages refugees from natural disasters. ”

"Now the Japanese government will think - it is clear that the Emperor’s desire cannot be ignored. But how to change the law? To introduce the deadline for the emperor in it not a pension? It seems absurd - they say, up to 60 or 80 years old, are you a symbol of the unity of the people, and then there is no more? But it can be entered into the law of renunciation? But this can create unimaginable situations in the future - for example, an arbitrary departure of the monarch from the throne and turning it into it. A successful businessman who will, for example, will open a network of restaurants with the emperor.

The regency, by the way, Akihito rejected in his statement, although such a system is allowed by law. But he does not want to be a “formal emperor” at the son-register-decrepit, dying, powerless and still remaining, as it were, the same “symbol of the unity of the people”. In his opinion, this will poorly affect the moral state of the nation. "

“Apparently, the government will now develop a separate, individual law specifically for the abdication of Akihito, who will not create a legal precedent. Well, the emperor himself wants to commit a moral revolution, he wants to finally deprive his title of a raid of mysticism and mystery. In his 82 years, he hopes to finally become a simple person who has the right to solitude and rest.”