Japan's next emperor: A cosmopolitan team player

I wonder who will be the first country to abandon their monarchy - Japan or England?

It is surprising that the imperial system of Japan has continued for such a long time.   Emperor himself did not have strong military powers. Emperor has always been a symbolic existance in that sense. Most of rulers of Japan were samurai warriors and no samurai ruler could survive without approval of the emperor. They used the emperor as their backbone or as authority in ruling Japan. So, it is not for the first time the emperor became a symbolic existance after the WW II.

Maybe it's me, but the casual manner in which the Crown Prince is referred to in this article bugs me. He is a Prince, and it's rude in Japanese culture to call someone by their name without the appropriate honorific. Even in English it would not have been so hard to write Prince Naruhito.

They used the emperor as their backbone or as authority in ruling Japan.

More like the used the Emperor as a puppet. I believe their was a saying in olden times Japan, "He who controls Kyoto, controls Japan".

The only problem I have with this photo is that wretched pegboard. When will that ever go away and something more elegant and Japanese put in for backdrop. Someone at kunaicho is really asleep at the wheel.

Maybe it's me, but the casual manner in which the Crown Prince is referred to in this article bugs me. He is a Prince, and it's rude in Japanese culture to call someone by their name without the appropriate honorific. Even in English it would not have been so hard to write Prince Naruhito.

Strangely, proper honorifics were used with Prince Akishino, Prince Hisahito, and Princess Aiko.

The prince’s expression resembles mine after my wife tells me to stop slouching and sit up straight for a photograph.

Good luck to both, especially Princess Masako.

Quite a dithyrambic article on the soon-to-be Emperor of Japan (has all the attributes of a perfect man)!

Doesn't strike me as a 'cosmopolitan' tbh (although he's traveled a fair bit) but i'll take your word for it. I do think he's a nice/mild mannered man though.

Lets hope the imperial couple get to use their skillset, diplomacy and social awareness, when combined the potential is endless.

So the new emperor, according to the press is a chum of English toffs and has a wife is suffering from manic depression. Then the press says many things about what he will do before he has even been enthroned. Feel sorry for the guy. He has to choose between being a royal British pleg or a leader of Japanese imperialism in the face of Nippon Kaigis push towards militarization and Meiji-era polices.

These staged photo ops always come across as somewhat creepy. Nobody dresses this way and lives in a room that looks like that (generally speaking of course). So why portray it as such? To instill a sense of "separation" from normal people? Looks like something from the Showa era still.

Royals are just people. Born into it by pure chance and accident. Much like all of us on where we were born. Why elevate some people over others based on an accidental birth? Nobody believes these people were divinely born anymore. The whole system of royalty just seems outdated and bizarre in this day and age.