Japanese Dopers: Discuss Japanese Imperial Family

Factual Questions
1

I just read the news that Japanese Imperial Princess Sayako just married and therefore formally relinquished her status as part of the Imperial family.

Did a few bits of reading on this. The Japanese Imperial Family seems to be a very formal part of Japanese culture, judging from the writings. This may be because of the translations, or just the “right” way of talking. I know that the culture and language are structured that way.

Still, the Imperial Family seems to be much more important and revered than, say, the British Royal Family. Is this true?

I’m particularly interested in the comments of Japanese citizens and those who have resided in the country for a long time. In the US, we don’t hear much about mainstream Japanese culture or news. In California, we’re mostly bombarded with pop culture and gadget culture, and this is surely not all we should know!

2

In the interest of disclosure, I’m not Japanese. From what I know, it’s not really polite to talk about the Imperial Family. I tried asking a few people about the Emperor a few years ago and they gave me evasive answers. Eventually, someone was direct enough to tell me that most Japanese avoid discussing the issue in a casual way. That factor is probably what keeps the public from changing the Imperials into celebrities the way the Royals are treated in the UK.

This is in relation to the older generation, though. Younger people seem not to know much, or care to know much, about the Imperials. I doubt most of the people under 30 would even know more than the Emperor’s name. Some of them don’t even know that. Of course, that may be over-generalizing that last from a few airheaded girls I hit on in my first couple of years here.

Take a look at the fairly massive Wikipedia article for more information than you probably wanted to know about the Imperial Family, succession, and related issues like marriage outside the line of succession.

The difference in attitude between the reverence shown the Royals in the UK and the Imperial Family in Japan has a lot to do with time, I think. The Emperor was the Emperor up until 60 years ago. In contrast, it’s been a lot longer than a generation or two since the British monarchs were seriously in charge of governing.

Also, Westerners in general, and the British in particular, have a lot more casual attitude toward monarchs. The Magna Carta dates back to about 800 years ago. A similar idea of reciprocal rights and responsibilities was forced on the Japanese from the outside in very recent times; they never had anything similar in their history.

There are also still people around who were educated during the War years when the Emperor was held to be of divine birth and was the head of the official state religion. Their kids were probably raised with more of a sense of reverence toward the Imperial Family than subsequent generations who grew up in a time when the Emperor was nothing more than a figurehead. The only-just-post-War generation is the group that’s mostly in charge of the government now.

There are forms of address and formalities of language that you are supposed to use in speaking to or about the Emperor. I have no idea what they are, I just know that they exist. Most Japanese people don’t know the proper forms either, so I don’t feel too bad about that.

3

Another non-Japanese in Japan (little over ten years now). What Sleel says is correct: the imperial family is one of the subjects that it’s not considered polite to gossip about. Though there are plenty of tabloid-type magazines that hire teams of paparazzi to hound athletes and other celebrities, the imperials are left alone. The furthest I’ve seen them going is some of the women’s magazines running “Is Princess Masako ok? She seems a bit stressed” stories, falling far short of the “Di claims life with Liz ‘living hell’, on suicide watch following state dinner fracas!” that the British and US rags were printing. Mostly we just see “Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako brought Princess Aiko to the park after her first day of school.”

There also doesn’t appear to be any movement, however small, to get rid of the imperial family like there is with the royals in England. The only subject being debated is whether to revise the succession laws allow a ruling Empress, since there haven’t been any male children born to the family since 1965. The general public and most of the government support it, with only a few old farts with influential positions in religion or organized crime opposing it.