New emperor to greet public earlier than planned

Start as you mean to go on, I wish him luck

Hopefully he is more decisive and has a good head on his shoulders. Royal family has let down Japan to many times before.

Perhaps best not to go ahead with the Long Holiday thing, that would actually be a most detrimental start of the employed populous of Japan, and not set a good precedent for the future.

Just do your thing, behind closed doors, and be later available to wave to the public over a weekend or two, then done.

That would be, progressive, and in line with Japanese work ethics. Anything otherwise, suggests something darker in the Society which when explored could unearth the proverbial "can of worms".

Hope he finally carries out the the promise he made to Masako sama upon his proposal: to make changes, for better. Hope the butterfly flies again

Royal family has let down Japan to many times before.

The Royal family here in Japan have been used as puppets for many generations and still are today. Although there is hardly a "commoner" here that will openly state that!

But I am interested to know just how you think that the Royal family has let down the country in the past, and "many times" as you state? If you think that by not talking out against injustices or wrong doings that were going on in the country, you need to understand better how things work here.

Their very existence depends upon who is holding the "keys" to the treasury and because it's the 21st Century and not back in Edo times, the current Emperor has talked out against numerous different injustices and problems he sees here in Japan, much to the chagrin of the government and those who support the Emperor.

This abdication caused plenty of stressful times for those folks, as many probably felt it was "beneath" the station of the Emperor to abdicate in the first place, hence it taking so long for it to finally happen.

meet the new emperor on May 4

And May the 4th be with him.