Time Machine: Is the Emperor necessary?

This story originally ran in the Japanese newspaper Yukan Fuji in 2019.

Last in a two-part series

TOKYO — My foreign friends who are interested in Japan often ask me if the Emperor is really necessary.

Does Japan need an Emperor, they ask. Especially in light of the elaborate and sometimes tedious and bewildering Shinto rituals the public is now enduring in the wake of Emperor Akihito stepping down in favor of his first-born son Naruhito. One of the ceremonies will include a televised ceremony of “spiritual” transfer of souls present from Father to Son.

“How can this happen if the former Emperor is still alive?” they ask.

The transition has required an extensive reconfiguring of official documents and computer records to align with a new calendar system, as ‘Reiwa’ replaces ‘Heisei.’