TOKYO: Japan’s Emperor Akihito marked his 84th birthday on Saturday with a pledge to fulfill his duties until the day of his abdication in 2019, and to prepare for “passing the torch to the next era.”
Akihito waved to thousands of well-wishers from a balcony of the royal palace. He was to attend birthday celebrations at the palace later Saturday.
In his annual birthday comment at a news conference earlier this week and released Saturday, Akihito thanked the people for putting together thoughts and efforts to achieve his abdication wish that had surprised the nation.
Akihito still has a busy schedule, signing official documents, receiving foreign dignitaries and traveling to disaster-hit areas. But he said he will keep working until April 30, 2019, the day he is scheduled to abdicate.
“Over the remaining days, I continue to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state,” Akihito said. “I would like to make preparations for passing the torch to the next era, together with the people concerned.”
Akihito last year expressed his wish to abdicate, citing his age and health as a concern. He ascended the throne at the age of 56 in January 1989, after the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito, beginning the Heisei Era.
The government has adopted a one-time law allowing for Akihito’s abdication, and this month formally set the date for the event. His elder son Crown Prince Naruhito will ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne the next day, on May 1, 2019. He will be 59.
There will be more preparations ahead of the abdication, including deciding a new era name and a new home for the emperor and the empress.
Akihito’s desire to leave the throne revived a debate about the country’s 2,000-year-old monarchy, one of the world’s oldest, as well as discussion about improving the status of female members of the shrinking royal population. The current male-only succession rules prohibit women from succeeding the throne. Women lose their royal status when they marry a commoner.
Unlike his father who was worshipped as god until the end of World War II, Akihito has devoted himself to being a symbolic figure as defined in Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution while trying to soothe the wounds of war from his father’s era. Though spoken in soft language, his emphasis on the importance of peace and compassions toward the handicapped, the weak and the elderly as he himself grew older is often seen in contrast to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ultra right-wing, hawkish policies.
In his birthday comment, Akihito also mentioned his sympathy for the suffering of those affected by volcanic eruptions and fatal rainstorms in southern Japan earlier this year.
The last emperor to abdicate was 200 years ago — Kokaku in 1817.
Japan Emperor turns 84, thanks people over abdication plans
Japan Emperor turns 84, thanks people over abdication plans
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
