Crown prince says he will devote himself 'body and soul' to job as emperor

Akihito, the first emperor to never have been considered divine, 

This is a "western" misinterpretation and a mistake as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/history/emperor_1.shtml

The Japanese concept of the divinity of the Emperor is often misunderstood by Westerners. Neither the Emperor nor most of his people ever thought that the Emperor was a God in the sense of being a supernatural supreme being.

He defied palace officials to marry Masako Owada, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated diplomat. Masako, 53, has suffered from depression brought on by the stresses of palace life and demands she bear a royal heir, and her public appearances have been limited in recent years.

The current Empress Michiko went through quite the same, and too many much harsher treatment from the people in the Imperial Housing Agency and her mother-in-law.

If ANYTHING needs to be restructured, it's the IHA !

At this point, it's difficult to judge about future foreign travel.

What a sad life she lives. I deeply empathize.

I wonder what the cost to the taxpayer for all this will be?

Best of luck to him, and hoping his wife can recover and cope with her future position

Government's pushing out the current emperor so Abe can goto war :(

Crown prince says he will devote himself 'body and soul' to job as emperor

Well, that's pretty much the job description, isn't it?

Crown prince says he will devote himself 'body and soul' to job as emperor

Hopefully he won't have to graft until 83...

Government's pushing out the current emperor so Abe can goto war :(

What's your reasoning behind thinking that?

What's your reasoning behind thinking that?

7 mimosas for breakfast while an Alex Jones podcast runs in the background?

I wonder what the cost to the taxpayer for all this will be?

Why? Because you want to complain about something the Japanese public wants, instead of some bridge to nowhere or politicians who line their pockets?

I think it is not so difficult for this job. There is no specific performance target to achieve. Just need to being respectful.

Will there be a ceremony celebrating the transfer of power?

"Government's pushing out the current emperor so Abe can goto war :("

-- gogogo

Source?

Crown prince says he will devote himself 'body and soul' to job as emperor

....until he reaches his eighties and has to stand down because of old age. Does ABE really think that the present emperor is going to be the last one who will have to abdicate due to poor health? And then, we're going to have to go through the whole palaver again, with the government drawing up a new law. In the old days, people kicked the bucket at much younger ages.

Let's face it, Masako is never going to recover from her illness. The only saving grace is that their daughter won't have to put up with all this nonsense in the future, assuming she marries.