When Emperor Naruhito’s younger brother, Prince Fumihito (55), allowed her daughter, Princess Mako (29), to marry, the local media made a special feature. It was a remark from a press conference held on November 30th for their 55th birthday.
What stood out was that it wasn’t a’pleasant consent’. Prince Fumihito said, “I don’t think it’s a situation where many people are convinced and pleased,” he said. “When it comes to getting married, it’s important to talk properly, including the details,” he said.
Princess Mako of Japan is applauding for attending a Japanese festival held in Sao Paulo, Brazil in July 2018. [AFP=연합뉴스]
– Fumihito, the number one successor to the Japanese throne, was also forced to be aware of public opinion over the marriage of his daughter.
When Princess Mako first announced her marriage in September 2017, the Japanese media intensively delved into the family issues of the gay (小室圭·29) fiancee.
There have been reports that the mother, who lost her husband, is being urged to repay the money borrowed from a man whom Gyo was dating, and requested financial support from the royal family. There have also been suspicions that a song is believed in an emerging religion, and that the father of Komuro made an extreme choice.
The cheers of public opinion toward the couple of Princess Mako, who met as a motive for entering college and promised love that surpassed their status, turned into opposing voices. Eventually, Princess Mako had no choice but to postpone her wedding, which was scheduled for November 2018, until 2020.
The anachronistic royal controversy? “The time has come for trouble”
– In the Korean sentiment without a king, it is not easy to understand that the public opinion is upset about this. Even if she is a princess, she is only one individual before the royal family, and it is sometimes considered anachronistic that it is necessary to obtain national consent for marriage.
![Akihito's granddaughter, Princess Mako, announces her engagement with Gumuro gay, a college student in 2017. [AP =연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202012/06/e8c2dfeb-c7d8-424f-8529-8423f8a19ad6.jpg?w=900&ssl=1)
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Akihito’s granddaughter, Princess Mako, announces her engagement with Gumuro gay, a college student in 2017. [AP =연합뉴스]
– Similar voices began to emerge in Japan. The problem of the gap between the symbolic role of the country and the individual’s self-determination should now be considered.
In order to understand the Emperor’s dilemma revealed by the controversy over Princess Mako’s marriage, we must first consider why this problem arose at this point. Until now, neither the royal family nor the people had any resistance to accepting the great events of the Japanese family as a national event. The royal family also chose a spouse without major flaws in consideration of the public sentiment, and the people have embraced it willingly.
Kawanishi Hideya, a professor of history at Nagoya University’s graduate school, who studies the Japanese Emperor, wrote in the Asahi Shimbun, “(Akihito’s incumbent elder brother) Heisei (January 8, 1989-April 30, 2019) Until Japan), in response to the times, the Emperor gained a broader understanding of the people. “But this time, there has been a discrepancy with the people.”
The royal priesthood’s dilemma seeking’freedom’
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![Akishinomiya (秋篠宮) Fumihito (center in the back row) and Kikobi (〃 right), the number one succession to the throne in Japan, pose for a photo shoot with their children at a palace in Tokyo on November 14th. From left, Princess Mako, the eldest daughter, Prince Hisahito, and Princess Kako, who are second in succession to the throne.[일본 궁내청=연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202012/06/fb09e738-14d2-4608-a427-416cfa6e1931.jpg?w=900&ssl=1)
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Akishinomiya (秋篠宮) Fumihito (center in the back row) and Kikobi (〃 right), the number one succession to the throne in Japan, pose for a photo shoot with their children at a palace in Tokyo on November 14th. From left, Princess Mako, the eldest daughter, Prince Hisahito, and Princess Kako, who are second in succession to the throne.[일본 궁내청=연합뉴스]
– But this time it was different. Fumihito is a free-spirited person since King Fumihito. The youngest son of the former Emperor Akihito, he married Kiko Bi and lived a life that values personal freedom, such as not being bound by royal traditions even in matters of going to school for children.
Fumihito, who seemed to be such a comfortable person, had to change when his elder brother ascended the Emperor and gained the No. 1 position to succeed to the throne. For the whole family of the royal family, we were faced with a situation where we had to consider authority, face, and relations with conservatives.
Professor Kawanishi said, “Even so, opposing the child’s natural feelings of love and marriage to the end would have been considered a denial of their own life,” said Professor Kawanishi. “I feel that pain from the remarks of King Fumihito.”
“When you think about the symbolic emperor again”
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![On November 8, at the proclamation ceremony of Rikkoshi, the Emperor Fumimoto is being rebuked by the Emperor of the Imperial Family (皇嗣, the next successor to the throne). [EPA=연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202012/06/69bda83a-eb04-47dd-9fa5-fe1348b15750.jpg?w=900&ssl=1)
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On November 8, at the proclamation ceremony of Rikkoshi, the Emperor Fumimoto is being rebuked by the Emperor of the Imperial Family (皇嗣, the next successor to the throne). [EPA=연합뉴스]
– That’s why it is said in Japan that the future of the symbolic Emperor (Japanese Emperor) should be discussed through this controversy. It raises the question of whether it is reasonable to force a royal family who has no real power to break the individual’s free will, saying that it is a symbol of’national unity’.
In fact, Chapter 1 of the Constitution of Japan calls the Emperor a’symbol of Japan and a symbol of the unity of the Japanese people’, but the permitted acts are strictly limited to’national affairs’, and that’the advice and approval of the cabinet’ is also required when performing such national affairs. Regulations.
It differs from the constitutional monarchy of other countries, which tolerates political actions to some extent. Osamu Watanabe, an emeritus professor at Hitotsubashi University, explains, “So Emperor Naruhito refrains from posting a video message in the face of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).” This is because political interpretation can come out, such as saying that when the Emperor says’let’s do it’, it means that the current government is not responding.
Professor Kawanishi suggested in the Asahi Shimbun that “as long as living humans are used as a symbol, similar pain will appear again” and that “how to balance human freedom with the system of the Japanese Emperor, we have to think in a form suitable for the times”
Professor Morihide Katayama of Keio University also said, “We must avoid an emotional attitude and consider whether the Emperor is needed in this era, and what model to obtain if an Emperor is needed.” We need a political space where democratic thinking and discussion can be made.”
Reporter Lee Geun-pyeong [email protected]
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