Wednesday 12 October 2005

Unmade in Japan

While I am no expert on members of the Chrysanthemum Throne, it seems to me that the Imperial Family is on the verge of something tremendously big.  The big, sadly, could be either a positive or a negative change.           

I don't know any members of the Imperial Family.  Very few people do, as they are probably the most cosseted and confined royal family in the world today.  Indeed they are so isolated from the rest of their citizens that none have their own telephone or hold a driver's licence.           

Certainly, they are revered by many Japanese and from what we do see and hear from them, they appear very personable, polite and bright.  A far cry from a family whose Head was a source of fear and even revulsion by the millions battling the Japanese during WWII.           

Indeed, after the war, it was a very lucky break that the then Emperor, Hirohito, was not deposed or even executed.  Instead, stripped of power he was allowed to stay on the throne and reign over, rather than rule, his ravaged nation.  No longer thought of as a god by his people, Hirohito set about learning the ropes of constitutional monarchy.           

Today his son sits on the throne, the kindly faced Akihito.  With no political power whatsoever, he is simply the symbol of the Japanese nation.  Together with his wife, the Empress Michiko, they represent Japan on official visits overseas and offer encouragement and comfort to their countrymen at home.           

To their immense credit, they have raised three decent human beings who have created none of the scandal of some of their European counterparts.  The Crown Prince is married to the much worried about but very loved Crown Princess Masako, Prince Akishino is married to the popular Princess Kiko and Princess Sayako is soon to be married to commoner, Yoshiki Kuroda.

On the outside, they have always looked happy enough, that is until Masako joined the family.  By 1993, the world was more open than it had ever been.  Like Diana of Britain, Masako was looked upon by most Japanese as a breath of fresh air and a bright light for the future of the Japanese monarchy.             

Unlike her mother-in-law, the Empress Michiko who for most of the salad years of her married life was mercilessly persecuted by the late Empress, the future for Masako looked brilliant.  Super smart, a respected diplomat carrying an armful of numerous and impressive degrees and able to speak four foreign languages fluently, she seemed the perfect choice for royal bride.  She dreamt of representing her country in the greatest way she could and was certainly prepared to do just that.           

Enter the Imperial House Agency (IHA).           

Sarah Ferguson may refer to Buckingham Palace courtiers as 'Grey Ghosts' but their Japanese brothers make them look like boy scouts in comparison.  So rigidly do they run the Imperial House and Family that there is absolutely no room for modernity in the Court - or women - for that matter, it seems.  The dreams Masako held for representing her country internally and overseas as Crown Princess were quickly squashed.  Masako would have to toe the line, produce an heir and be as uncontroversial as possible.           

No doubt Masako expected that her life would change when she married into the Imperial Family.  She would have seen how Diana's transformed and probably thought she could cope.  She would have been right except for the fact that the Japanese Court is far, far different from today's European Courts.  Popular expectation and subdued, yet hopeful, calls for modernity mean nothing to the IHA.           

In her own way, Masako seems destined to be the catalyst of some form of change in the Japanese Imperial House, though it has come at great personal cost. By producing a beautiful baby girl, Princess Aiko, she not only pleased the people but also gave the monarchy a future - or so we thought.  While the Japanese throne may only pass down through the male line, many expected that even if she did not fall pregnant again, the law would be changed so that females could succeed.  In days where a woman can become a renowned and competent diplomat, one assumes that a reigning Empress would be equally as plausible. (Goodness knows, as women, what Elizabeth II, Beatrix and Margrethe II think of this fuss).           

Despite this, pressure for Masako to produce a male heir from within the Court and from ultra conservatives outside, increased.  This, and the lack of opportunity for Masako to utilise her many skills ensured her of a nervous breakdown or 'adjustment disorder' as the IHA bizarrely termed the condition.            

Desperate to help his ailing wife, the Crown Prince went public and criticised the IHA and was immediately attacked by members of his own family for doing so.  Interestingly his mother, the Empress, who suffered both a breakdown and loss of her voice due to stress over the years was one of his detractors, as was his sister, Sayako who seemed to find the Prince's outburst an attack on their parents.            

What Aiko's birth and Masako's ill health have done is to place the Imperial Family and its future, into the public arena.  Although this arena is vastly different to what we might see in the West because reporting on the Japanese Imperial Family is extremely controlled by the IHA and journalists are fearful of crossing boundaries.  For instance, an innocent (and apparently rather beautiful photograph) snapped of the Emperor's second son and his wife as she pulled a loose hair from his forehead before an official portrait sitting, saw the offending photographer banned from Court for life.           

Despite this there are at least some discussions occurring about the succession issue.  The IHA seem determined not to budge from their current stance. It cites an increase in the numbers of the Imperial Family if the law is changed to allow women to inherit the throne as sound reason to leave it as it is and offering the possibility of adopting from one of the former branches of the family as an alternative.  At the same time, more prominent Japanese are coming out in support of a reigning Empress - or 'female Emperor' as the position seems to be called in reports.           

And, in just over a month, the Imperial Family will be less one member when the Emperor's only daughter, Princess Sayako, marries and leaves the Imperial House as all Japanese princesses must currently do.  No one really knows why the Princess waited until 36 to marry but one can't discount the promise of being thrown out of the family and losing one's privileges and lifestyle as good cause to resist.  In a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, the IHA bestowed on Princess Sayako a one off tax- free payment of AU$1.7 million toward her life as a regular Japanese citizen.  This may seem a lot of money to many of us but when one considers the cost of living in Tokyo and 36 years of life as a dutiful Princess in the Imperial Palace, not really an attractive sum.           

Just what changes eventuate from current discussions remains to be seen but one thing is certain; that while the majority of Japanese live meaningful lives in relative freedom, the residents behind the gates of the beautiful, lush green oasis that is the Imperial Palace, don't seem quite so lucky.              

- Gioffredo