Japan Today
national

Japan's imperial family gets 19 million likes on Instagram in 6 months

24 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.

24 Comments
Login to comment

I can only imagine how harrowing it must be to have a powerful governmental organization using/altering my image/likeness and crafting my words for its own social gain.

-13 ( +7 / -20 )

The most popular post, which garnered more than 690,000 likes,

Just a comparison @MrBeast got 17.8M likes from his last post, that's not accumulation of likes he got from his post. Or @taylorswift got 7.1M likes from her last post.

-26 ( +2 / -28 )

Brand new spade with no dirt on it. Brand new boots all round. Only he has dirt on his gloves.

Here, have a spade and hold the takenoko we dug up earlier for the photo.

-5 ( +21 / -26 )

Brand new spade with no dirt on it. Brand new boots all round. Only he has dirt on his gloves.

Here, have a spade and hold the takenoko we dug up earlier for the photo.

@InspectorGadget you beat me to that comment. Apart from the emperor’s left index finger, there’s not a speck of dirt on either of them, or the shovel.

-10 ( +6 / -16 )

宮内庁/ Imperial Household Agency

https://www.instagram.com/kunaicho_jp/?hl=en

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@InspectorGadget

This photo is tailored for us lowly commoners.

-15 ( +12 / -27 )

@sakurasaki

Who cares about MrBeast or Taylor Swift likes. The article is about the Imperial Household account and activities

17 ( +20 / -3 )

The photo is excruciating, the PR is toe-curling, a AI self cleaning spade after every thrust/dig?

The gloves/wellies are superhydrophilic too.

In all honesty who really notices?

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

Photo for PR purposes? Yes.

Nice to see them in regular clothes and not doing official stuff, possibly enjoying themselves? Also yes.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

Brand new spade with no dirt on it. Brand new boots all round. Only he has dirt on his gloves.

No surprise, they never do their own yardwork. They have 100 or so gardeners plus daily groups of volunteers(usually old ladies) that do it. I heard the volunteers enter a drawing to do it then get to say hi to Naruhito/Masako on their final day.

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

The previous emperor every year grew a field of rice and harvested it by hand. The current emperor is now doing that.

4 ( +16 / -12 )

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, every member of the J royal family are in every respect guardians of the nation soul.

Above political intrigue, pristine morally, every trusted character trait the political establishment lacks.

Even the spade gloves and wellies agree.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

If they got out and about shaking hands and meeting the common folk like the British royal family do, they would be universally liked. Not just by oldies who associate the royal lineage with the imagined good old days (colonialism).

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

They have 100 or so gardeners plus daily groups of volunteers(usually old ladies) that do it.

Actually no "they" don't. The IHA, funded through the national government, deals with the upkeep and the facilities and what not.

The imperial family has nothing to do with it.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

It's nice to see the Imperial couple enjoying nature in Japan . . . .

皇室ご夫妻が日本の自然を楽しんでおられるのを見るのは嬉しいですね。

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

didou - I think you’re getting the hang of this

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Actually no "they" don't. The IHA, funded through the national government, deals with the upkeep and the facilities and what not.

Who cares, all I know is they don't do their own yardwork like wallace is claiming.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Who cares, all I know is they don't do their own yardwork like wallace is claiming.

I said the emperor grows rice. That is a fact easy to prove.

I'm not even a pro-royal family.

"Rice cultivation at the palace was started by Showa Emperor Hirohito and has been passed down to Emperor Emeritus Akihito and now to the current Emperor. The Emperor engages in this annual activity out of a desire to cherish rice cultivation, which is at the heart of Japan's agricultural culture."

https://www.ntv.co.jp/englishnews/articles/2021alon5rmy1vasur2l.html#:~:text=Rice%20cultivation%20at%20the%20palace,heart%20of%20Japan's%20agricultural%20culture.

https://japan246.com/2017/01/25/rice/

9 ( +15 / -6 )

heh guys please do not knock it unless you dunnit. environmentally promoting the growth of ultra rapid growing bamboo.. that can be-used for green environmental hashi production. Soon coming to a restaurant near you. Not a fighter bomber in sight. bamboo RULES.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

What’s not to like about them

1 ( +4 / -3 )

The bronze spray-painted shovel without a hint of ever having been stuck into the earth, the prostate exam gloves instead of gardening gloves, and the boots, shiny black to the toes, all point to this photo being completely staged. Not even an attempt at making it look like they'd actually been doing this work. It's like they're at Disney and they paid ¥5,000 to dress up as Wyatt Erpp and his old lady to get their sepia-toned photo taken. At least when George W. Bush did photo-ops with his chainsaw on his ranch, he was actually ripping the chainsaw chunking up logs and he had sawdust all over him.

Then again, Japan is a very superficial society, so perhaps nobody will bat an eye.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I do not have Instagram so consider this my “like” your highnesses.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

That spade is suspiciously clean.... :-)

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites