Akihito, the oldest Emperor Emeritus of all the emperors of Japan

Emperor Akihito, 87, along with Emperor Showa, is the longest-living emperor of all time, who is said to have a strong record.

Emperor Emeritus, who was born on December 23, 1933, like Emperor Showa, his father, who died during his reign, is the longest-living emperor in Japanese history, since Empress Suiko (554 – 628 AD)

In the footsteps of Emperor Emeritus Akihito

The Emperor was the eldest son of the Showa Emperor (Hirohito) He spent his childhood while the war continued and during the post-war reconstruction period, at the age of 19, he visited a foreign country for the first time to attend the coronation of the Queen Elizabeth of England as the name of Emperor Showa.

A year after finishing university, he met Empress Emerita at a tennis court in Karuizawa and got married at the age of 25. The celebration parade was packed with more than 500,000 people and was blessed by many people.

After that, he worked hard in public affairs with Empress Emerita Michiko in Japan and abroad, and raised three sons, including the current Emperor Naruhito , and was shown a new image of the imperial family.

At the age of 55 due to the death of the Showa Emperor (1989), he was enthroned under the current constitution beginning the Heisei Era. At a press conference the following year, he said, “It is a symbol of Japan, and I would like to fulfill the duties of the emperor as a symbol of Japan’s national unity.”

Faced with the history of the war with the Empress Emerita, every year during her reign, she attended the “National Memorial Service for War Dead” on the day of the end of the war and expressed her wish that the war would not be repeated again. .

In 1995, 50 years after the war, he embarked on a “journey of remembrance” and visited Okinawa and the atomic bombed areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 60 years after the war, he visited Saipan, a fierce battlefield in the Pacific Ocean, and was commemorated abroad for the war dead.

The Emperor continued to pay close attention to the disaster-stricken areas with the Empress.

In 1991, he visited the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, which was hit by the eruption of Mount Unzen Fugen, and came over to speak with the victims. After that, whenever a major disaster like the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 happened, I would go to the site and visit the people who had been affected by the disaster.

In the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, he talked to people with an unusual video message, visited all three Tohoku prefectures for seven consecutive weeks, and occasionally visited the affected areas.

In 1992, he visited China for the first time as the all-time emperor, visited 36 countries as emperor, and devoted himself to international goodwill.

In August 2016, the Emperor expressed his intention to abdicate in a video message. Following this, a special abdication law was enacted, and on April 30, 2019, he abdicated at the age of 85, with his son Naruhito taking the throne.