A Japanese lawmaker was reprimanded on Friday for breaking a taboo by trying to involve Emperor Akihito in politics when he handed him a letter expressing concern about the health impact of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear crisis.
A furor erupted after Japanese Councilor Taro Yamamoto gave Akihito the handwritten missive at a garden party last week, the first such bid in more than a century to draw the emperor’s attention.
The incident highlights Japanese sensitivities about the emperor that linger nearly 70 years after his father, in whose name the Japanese military waged World War II, renounced his divine status.
The topic was also unwelcome for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under pressure for his handling of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Abe faces demands from some in his party and from charismatic former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi to give up nuclear power altogether.
“There’s a consensus in the ongoing political squabbles of the day that the emperor ought not be involved. It’s crossed the line,” said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asia studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus. “And clearly nuclear energy is a huge political issue in Japan today.”
On Friday, Parliament’s upper house barred Yamamoto from attending events with the imperial family and issued a stern warning, an official said.
“Always keep in mind that you are a lawmaker and do nothing to dirty the name of parliament,” ran the warning, media said.
Yamamoto, an actor and anti-nuclear activist elected to the upper house in July, said he had wanted to tell the emperor about the “endangered future” of Japanese children due to health problems from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which has been leaking radiation since being struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
About 150,000 people were evacuated after the disaster, and a vast swathe of land remains off-limits, while traces of radioactive contamination have been found in rice and far out in the Pacific Ocean.
Demands that Yamamoto quit were voiced immediately, and a magazine poll of 1,100 readers said 90 percent disapproved of his action.
He apologized for “worrying His Majesty” earlier this week, but refused to heed the calls for his resignation.
“The standard for ‘political use’ is not clear,” Nihon University political science professor Tomoaki Iwai said. “The issue of nuclear reactors is a minus for the LDP [Liberal Democratic Party], and that’s one probable reason the reaction is so strong.”
Generations of Japanese have believed their emperors to be gods, but Akihito’s father, Hirohito, gave up the status of divinity after World War II.
The post-war constitution declares the emperor to be “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people,” with no political powers.
The only previous instance of an emperor being directly handed a letter was in 1901, by a former lawmaker protesting pollution from a copper mine. He was arrested on the spot, but helped set off a citizens’ movement on the issue.
A scientist who researches fish, Akihito, who turns 80 next month, has tried to draw the imperial family closer to the people. Conservative Japanese revere him, while many others feel a fond affection. Some Japanese feel the whole family is irrelevant.
Iwai and other political experts said Tokyo’s successful Olympic campaign included a speech by a princess, and Akihito attended a government event early this year to mark Japan’s regaining sovereignty after World War II, a bid to restore national pride by conservatives like Abe.
“Using the emperor is something that’s been done by the LDP government for quite a while now,” Sophia University political science professor Koichi Nakano said. “I think [the problem] is it’s touching upon a subject that’s very much a taboo issue.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not