A new emperor ascends the throne on May 1. How important to Japan do think the monarchy system is?

If the people in imperial household were equal to us, that system would be imporatnt. Recently some of them are seen as a celebrity or something in a media, I'm getting concerned a bit.

A monarchy system is part of cultural identity. Being English, I understand the reasons and values of maintaining a monarchy. I'm not particularly a royalist but I do believe that a monarchy is symbolic and unifying in certain ways.