On May 1, 2019, Naruhito succeeded his father, Akihito, as Emperor of Japan, beginning the new era with the name of Reiwa. Written 令和, Reiwa is supposed to mean order and harmony, although even Japanese had a tough time making sense of the kanji since Rei can mean "commands" or "order," as well as "auspicious" or "good" and Wa means Harmony or Peace.
In spite of the belief that the first Emperor was descended from the Sun Goddess, for the first time in recent history, a woman will be present for the ceremony, but it won't be his wife. It will be Satsuki Katayama, the only woman in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet. Some things never change...
Golden Week, however, will. This year it will run through May 6 for an unprecedented ten days.
The actual enthronement ceremony will take place around October 22 after the new Emperor makes offerings of freshly harvested rice to the Japanese deities, and eats some as a prayer for the welfare of Japan and its people.
In Japan, the Emperor is a ceremonial but revered figure in the constitutional monarchy. Dating back fourteen centuries of an unbroken line, it is the oldest hereditary monarchy in the world. Emperor number 125, Akihito is a direct descendant of an emperor from around 1,500, although Japanese mythology has it that the line dates back to Emperor Jimmu Tenno, who is said to have reigned around 660 BC.
Each Japanese emperor's reign is given a name, or "gengo," and traditionally the years have been counted beginning with the first year of the era. These days, however, the gengo year is used alongside the Western calendar year.
Akihito (now called the Heisei Emperor after his Era’s name) is the son of Hirohito (now called Showa Emperor). Hirohito was controversial for presiding over the wartime aggression in the first half of the 20th Century.
Akihito, on the other hand, has repeatedly expressed remorse for his country's actions before and during World War II, although he has not exactly apologized.
In 2010, Emperor Akihito informed his advisory council that he would eventually like to retire from his demanding job due to his health. However, since there is no legal provision for an abdication by the Emperor, and thus would require an amendment, senior members of the Imperial Household Agency did nothing.
In July 2016, NHK reported that the Emperor wished to abdicate within a few years in favor of his elder son Crown Prince Naruhito, but senior officials within the Imperial Household Agency denied that there was any official plan for the monarch to abdicate.
On 8 August 2016, the Emperor gave a rare televised address, in which he underscored his advanced age (approaching 83 at the time) and declining health. As this implied a desire to abdicate, the nation was shocked. Finally, on 8 June 2017, the National Diet passed a one-time bill allowing Emperor Akihito to step down, and for the government to begin the process of handing over the position to Crown Prince Naruhito.
His son Naruhito, who will ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1, 2019, has stood by his father's stance on Japan's wartime atrocities. Referring to the whitewashing of horrors, he stated at a press conference in 2015 "It is important today, when memories of the war are fading, to look back humbly on the past and correctly pass on the tragic experiences and history Japan pursued from the generation which experienced the war to those without direct knowledge.”
Even rarer, in an emotional address on his 85th birthday in December 2018, Akihito commented on the "countless lives" lost in the war, and added, "It gives me deep comfort that the Heisei Era is coming to an end, free of war in Japan."
