Akihito and Michiko, the love story that revolutionized Japan

TOKYO – After 30 years and five months of rule, Akihito will leave the chrysanthemum throne for Crown Prince Naruhito tomorrow, at the first abdication of an emperor of

Japan

in two centuries.

During those years, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko gently altered the very rigid Japanese imperial system, addressing the people and spreading a message of peace.

Under his fragile and unobtrusive appearance, the sweet-spoken monarch, who opted for a marriage of love with a commoner whom he met on a tennis court, came to express his remorse for the abuses committed by the former imperial army. during the first half of the twentieth century in several places in Asia.

His way of being, his visits to victims of natural disasters, under the arm of Michiko, may have upset the traditionalists, for whom his role should be strictly limited to prayer and the execution of They have earned him the respect and affection of his compatriots.

Akihito was born on December 23, 1933, when his country embarked on a militaristic conquest of Asia on behalf of his father, Emperor Hirohito. He was 11 years old when the Second World War ended on August 15, 1945 with a humiliating and unconditional surrender of Japan.

Hirohito is then stripped of his semi-divine status and becomes, by virtue of the pacifist constitution imposed by the American occupier, a "symbol of the State and the unity of the people", devoid of of political power.

Akihito inherited the throne in January 1989 upon the death of his father, although the induction ceremony took place the following year, becoming the 125th emperor of Japan.

With the affected

Michiko Shoda, a young girl, daughter of a grain entrepreneur and student at a Catholic center in Tokyo, became the first empress not to belong to the nobility. His marriage in 1959 caused a sensation across the country.

The couple decided to live with their three children, a girl and two boys, including Crown Prince Naruhito, born in 1960, instead of leaving them in the hands of governesses.

After three years, Akihito himself was entrusted to an educator, the American Elisabeth Gray Vining, who would speak in his memoirs of the "sad and isolated" life of the "poor little one".

The break with tradition has attracted attention and Michiko's gestures have been constantly observed.

The Empress accompanied her husband in most of his many obligations. The two, who had just resembled their pearly gray hair and their slow, elegant walk, seemed inseparable.

Michiko has helped to humanize the relationship between the ruler and the man in the street. It was she who taught the emperor to kneel or squat to talk to the victims of natural disasters.

After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sparked the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Akihito delivered an unprecedented televised speech to encourage the people. Two months later, the couple went to the affected area.

A precious heritage

"The most valuable legacy of Akihito and Michiko lies in their concerted efforts to put their imperial prestige at the service of the less fortunate members of Japanese society," said Kenneth Ruoff, Japan's specialist at Japan. University of Portland. In this respect, "no politician" has equaled them, he said.

For many, the popularity of the emperor has allowed this man to go beyond the limits and express his opinions in a subtle way, despite the fact that the Constitution prevents him from deal with political issues.

Akihito clearly expressed an aversion to nationalism and expressed remorse for the "excesses" of his country in the last century, a position sometimes interpreted as a rejection of the nationalist position of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During a famous visit in 1992, he admitted that Japan "inflicted great suffering on the Chinese people."

In 2001, he came to remind, at a press conference, that part of his ancestors was from the Korean peninsula, which is unacceptable to the nationalists.

"I think we have never seen an emperor as honest and humane as he is," wrote Masayasu Hosaka, author of a book about Akihito and his father.

AFP Agency