[Japan] Emperor Akihito expresses hopes for united rebuilding effort in New Year's greetings

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Sunday received New Year's greetings at the start of 2012 from other imperial family members and foreign ambassadors, while expressing hope in his New Year's message for cooperative and patient efforts to rebuild society after the nation was devastated by a series of natural disasters last year.

Among the well-wishers who extended congratulations to the emperor and the empress at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo were Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and about 200 ambassadors and their spouses.

photos found on twitter

"It is certainly a pleasure to celebrate the New Year together," the emperor said at the ceremony. "At the beginning of the year, I wish for the prosperity of the nation and happiness of the people."

In his New Year message to the Japanese people released earlier in the day, the emperor expressed hope that everyone will cooperate and make patient efforts to rebuild Japanese society after the country was hard hit in 2011 by calamities, such as the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster as well as torrential rains which ravaged parts of western Japan in September.

to read more, click here

Divisions deepen in the Japanese Royal [Imperial] court

The divisions are so sharp that Crown Princess Masako, pleading a cold, did not once visit the ailing Emperor Akihito, who turns 78 this month, as he lay for 19 days in the University of Tokyo hospital with bronchitis.

The estrangement between the emperor and the couple comes in the twilight of Akihito's reign and foreshadows profound changes in the ancient dynasty.

Long rumoured, but seldom confirmed, the troubles of the monarchy last week moved from the gossip pages of weekly magazines into the staid columns of Japan's most respected newspapers.

Prince Akishino and his wife, Princess Kiko

Supporters of the crown prince and princess, who both studied at Oxford, had hopes they would refresh the court with a modern, cosmopolitan touch - hopes that foundered on stony traditions.

Instead, Japan has endured the private anguish of its crown princess, who has been receiving psychological care for eight years and seldom appears at royal engagements. Masako was ostracised by courtiers when she tried to break with protocol, failed to produce a male heir to the throne and then went into seclusion after a nervous collapse.

The royal couple have a daughter, Aiko, 10, who cannot accede to the chrysanthemum throne under a rule barring women. Crown Prince Naruhito has defended his wife against criticism and this has led to an erosion of his stature in the eyes of the emperor and the rest of the family.

Instead, Prince Akishino, his younger brother, has advanced in favour as the father of the male heir to the throne, Prince Hisahito, now aged five. Hisahito's birth 12 years after his parents' last child ended parliamentary discussion of reforms to allow Aiko to succeed.

Now taboos are crumbling after the younger prince spoke publicly about the distance between the brothers.

"Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to interact on many occasions with the crown prince and princess," Akishino told a press conference to mark his 46th birthday.

He remarked the imperial grandchildren rarely saw each other, even though they all lived on the leafy Akasaka estate in central Tokyo. "There have only been a limited number of opportunities for our children to be together," Akishino said.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, a leading daily paper, his comments "give the impression that the crown prince and his family have become isolated within the entire imperial family".

It said the elderly emperor saw far more of little Hisahito, who is a passionate collector of insects, and joined him on expeditions in the imperial palace gardens.

"That may reflect a special bond towards Hisahito, who is the first and only grandson," the paper commented, adding: "The emperor and empress ... want to pass on the future to (Akishino's) children ... that is because they feel they can no longer depend on Masako, who rarely makes public appearances due to an 'adjustment disorder'."

source

[When they were young] Beatrix when she was still a Princess with Akihito when he was not yet an Emperor

October 1979: Princess Beatrix, Prince Akihito, Queen Juliana, Princess Michiko and Prince Claus.

1 - Oh Bea, you didn't change a bit!

2 - I didn't know Prince Claus was that tall! Was he?

3 - Michiko was absolutely stunning! A true flower!

Queen Juliana abdicated six months after this photo. Beatrix became Queen at age 42. Akihito became Emperor nine years later, in 1989, at 54-years-old.

source of the photo

[Japan] Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko marked the two-month anniversary of the March 11 disasters in simple fashion

Empress Michiko visits a devastated area on the two-month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with Emperor Akihito in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture on May 11.

Displaced residents in evacuation centers and relief workers in the battered towns of Tohoku gathered to observe a minute’s silence at 2:46 p.m., the moment when the country’s biggest-ever earthquake occurred two months earlier.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Fukushima prefecture Wednesday in their latest trip to the disaster zone to pass on messages of support. The country’s biggest daily paper, the broadsheet Yomiuri, printed an updated list of the names of those confirmed dead since April 8, the last time it published this list, which fills three pages with very small print.

With the news cycle having rolled on many times since Japan marked the one-month anniversary, international attention has inevitably shifted elsewhere, be it to civil protests in the Middle East, tornadoes in the southern U.S. or the killing of Osama bin Laden.

source

Royal weddings from the past - Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko (1959)

On April 10th, 1959, then Crown Prince Akihito married Michiko Shōda, the eldest daughter of Hidesaburo Shōda, the president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company. The new Crown Princess was the first commoner to marry into the imperial family.

[Japan] Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visit tsunami affected area

JAPAN'S Emperor Akihito has toured a tsunami-hit port and ate fish fresh from the sea, despite fears over radiation.

Friday's event was the second time Akihito and Empress Michiko had visited an area directly hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami, which left some 27,000 people dead or missing along the Pacific coast northeast of Tokyo.

They plan to travel closer to the hardest-hit prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima in the coming weeks as the imperial family plays its constitutional role as a symbol of the nation's unity.

The 77-year-old emperor and his wife, 76, travelled to the city of Kitaibaraki, some 150 kilometres northeast of the capital, where five people died and another went missing in the disaster.

They offered a silent bow toward the sea when they were told at a fishing port that one fishery cooperative worker went missing when a breakwater collapsed, according to television footage.

"How many metres did the tsunami measure in height? What is the most difficult thing now?" they were heard asking officials.

The couple then visited a city gymnasium where about 40 evacuees were staying, talking to each of them.

Emperor Akihito consoled a 72-year-old man, whose wife had died at the centre, saying: "It was quite unfortunate. You must be missing her very much."

A 74-year-old man told the emperor: "I am staying here because I am scared of aftershocks," according to the daily Yomiuri. "I felt calm when I saw his majesty's face. Tears came to my eyes," it quoted him as saying.

Kitaibaraki's fishing port resumed operations Wednesday amid fears of pollution as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 70 kilometres to the north, continues leaking radiation into the air, sea and ground.

The emperor and empress were offered fried conger eels and flounders cooked in soy sauce, popular sea delights in Japan, for lunch at the port, Kitaibaraki mayor Minoru Toyoda told Japanese media.

The couple expressed concern over the area being harmed by rumours about radioactive pollution of fishery products, Toyoda said.

source

[VIDEO] Top 10 Longest-Reigning Monarchs of the world

10 - JAPAN - Emperor Akihito (22 years of reign)
9 - SWAZILAND - King Mswati III (24 years) 
8 - THE NETHERLANDS - Queen Beatrix (30 years)
7 - SPAIN - King Juan Carlos I (35 years)
6 - SWEDEN - King Carl XVI Gustaf (37 years)
5 - DENMARK - Queen Margrethe (38 years)
4 - OMAN - Sultan Qaboos Bin Said (40 years)
3 - BRUNEI - Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (43 years)
2 - UNITED-KINGDOM - Queen Elizabeth II (59 years)
1 - THAILAND - King Bhumibol Adulyadej (64 years)

[Japan] Emperor Akihito visits tsunami-hit city

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Thursday visited Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, in their first trip to an area badly hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, to console local people.

The couple were briefed by Asahi Mayor Tadanao Akechi on the damage suffered by the city before visiting two shelters to offer moral support to people, many of whom lost their houses.

Asahi, located in the northeastern coastal area, suffered 13 fatalities and two people are still listed as missing. Some 900 houses were crushed or almost demolished.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Thursday visited Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, in their first trip to an area badly hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, to console local people.

source