re: #14 Citizen K

I’m not sure Japan can take another 6 years of Abe in general.

It’ll be interesting to see how Abe gets along with the new emperor (five days to go). The post-WWII constitution got rid of state Shinto and the deification of the emperor. While Hirohito may have felt the loss, Akihito has been very much in favor of the current situation. Abe would like to go back to a more nationalistic tilt and he demonstrates this by going to the Yasukuni shrine (where the souls of war criminals are enshrined). Akihito made it very clear from the start of his imperial rule that he wouldn’t go to Yasukuni and that has been a point of contention between him and the traditionalists and people who would use traditionalism, like Abe.

It is unlikely that Naruhito, the next emperor, will change in that regard. Here’s a recent article giving a backgrounder on him:

apnews.com

I’d note that Naruhito’s heir is his brother Akishino, and *he* caused consternation in recent months with the Imperial Household Agency (a bunch of stuffed shirts who basically want to remythify the imperial family) by stating that the Imperial family, not the state, should pay for the Shinto ceremonies around his brother’s enthronement. It’s not especially expensive (I heard that all the arrangements were in the neighborhood of $20 million), but Akishino was concerned about the separation of state and Shinto. We could use some more of that here.

It’s worth noting that the current empress was raised in a Roman Catholic family, although the discussion of the subject of religion is studiously avoided. Naruhito’s wife, Masako, was raised in Russia, the USA and Japan, she went to a Catholic high school in Japan, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a degree in economics and speaks five languages. Masako has also tussled with the Imperial Household Agency and there’s been some vague talk that the pressure of the agency may have pushed her into depression.

Again, it will be interesting to watch, but dissension and change between Abe and Naruhito isn’t going to be especially obvious.