The 59-year-old Naruhito will formally take possession of the sacred imperial regalia at a solemn ceremony later Wednesday but he became the 126th emperor at the stroke of midnight, ushering in the “Reiwa” imperial era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His father, the popular 85-year-old Akihito used \nhis final royal speech to offer his “heartfelt gratitude to the people \nof Japan” and pray for global peace as the curtain came down on his \n30-year reign that saw him transform the role of emperor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a\n 10-minute ceremony in the Imperial Palace’s elegant Room of Pine, he \nstopped to offer a hand to his wife of 60 years, Michiko, as she stepped\n down from the stage and poignantly paused before exiting the room, \nbowing deeply to the 300 invited guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the first time in\n more than 200 years an emperor had stepped down in Japan and kicks off \nthe “Reiwa” era meaning “beautiful harmony”, that will last as long as \nNaruhito is on the throne. Constant rain dampened large-scale \ncelebrations but a few hundred hardy souls gathered outside the palace \nas the ceremony unfolded while others watched on giant screens around \nTokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside Tokyo, locals wearing kimonos performed a \ntraditional dance in Gifu, central Japan, to mark the imperial \ntransition planning to dance all night. Several couples held their \nwedding ceremonies at midnight at hotels to join the national \ncelebration. And crowds braved torrential rain to see in the new era at \nTokyo’s famous Shibuya crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The emperor was a good person. \nHe played an important role during the March 11 quake. He was the symbol\n of Japan. I hope the new emperor will carry on the kindness the old \nemperor had,” said Rika Yamamoto, a 24-year-old resident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\n not everything was beautiful and harmonious as minor scuffles broke out\n near Shinjuku, the world’s busiest station, with right-wingers briefly \nclashing with anti-monarchy protesters.Naruhito formally inherited the \nimperial symbols of an ancient sword and jewel at a formal ceremony on \nWednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Naruhito ascends the throne, he will find a very \ndifferent Japan than his father took over in 1989. At the end of the \n1980s, Japan ruled the world economically, its technology was the envy \nof every industrialised nation and its stock market at highs unlikely to\n be matched again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But after a “lost decade” when the bubble \nburst, Japan is still locked in a battle against deflation and sluggish \ngrowth while its population ages rapidly and many rural areas suffer \nfrom depopulation to the major cities. Naruhito will also face the \nchallenge of continuing his father’s legacy while maintaining Japanese \ntraditions that stretch back centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Waqas Adenwala, an \nanalyst at the Economic Intelligence Unit, said “Given the standards set\n by his father, Emperor Naruhito will be expected to maintain a similar \napproach and extend his outreach to the society through public \nappearances.” But the Oxford-educated Naruhito has also criticised the \nsometimes stifling constraints on the imperial family, especially as his\n wife Masako, a former diplomat, has struggled to adapt to life in the \npalace and has seen her health suffer.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 59-year-old Naruhito will formally take possession of the sacred imperial regalia at a solemn ceremony later Wednesday but he became the 126th emperor at the stroke of midnight, ushering in the “Reiwa” imperial era. His father, the popular 85-year-old Akihito used his final royal speech to offer his “heartfelt gratitude to the people of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60365,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60363\/revisions\/60365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}