Akihito

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For Prince Komatsu, see Prince Komatsu Akihito.

Akihito
Emperor of Japan
Image:Emperor akihito3.jpg
Reign	7 January, 1989 - Present
Coronation	12 November, 1990
Born	Template:Birth date and age
	Tokyo, Japan
Predecessor	Emperor Shōwa
Heir-Apparent	Crown Prince Naruhito
Consort	Empress Michiko
Issue	Prince Naruhito Prince Akishino Sayako Kuroda
Royal House	see Emperor of Japan
Father	Emperor Shōwa
Mother	Empress Kōjun

Template:Nihongo is the current Template:Nihongo of Japan, and the 125th emperor according to Japan's traditional order of succession. He acceded to the throne in 1989, and is the 21st most senior monarch or lifelong leader. He is the world's only reigning monarch with the title of emperor.

1 Name
2 Biography
3 Marriage and children
4 Ichthyological research
5 Political activities
6 Ancestors
7 References
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Name

In Japan, the emperor is never referred to by his given name, but rather is referred to as Template:Nihongo, which may be shortened to Template:Nihongo. In writing, the emperor is also referred to formally as Template:Nihongo. The Era of Akihito's reign bears the name "Heisei" (平成), and according to custom he will be renamed "Emperor Heisei" (平成天皇; see "posthumous name") after his death by order of the cabinet, in which the name of the next era under his successor will also be established.^[1]

[edit] Biography

Akihito is the eldest son and the fifth child of the Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and Empress Kōjun (Nagako). Titled Template:Nihongo as a child, he was raised and educated by his private tutors and then attended the elementary and secondary departments of the Peers' School (Gakushuin) from 1940 to 1952.^[2] Unlike his precedents in the Imperial Family, he did not receive a commission as an Army officer, at the request from his father, Emperor Shōwa.

During the American firebombing raids on Tokyo in March 1945, he and his younger brother, HIH Prince Masahito, were evacuated from the city. During the American occupation of Japan following World War II, Prince Akihito was tutored in English by Elizabeth Gray Vining. He briefly studied at the Department of Political Science at Gakushuin University in Tokyo, though he never received a degree. Although he was Heir-Apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne from the moment of his birth, his formal Template:Nihongo was held at the Kokyo Imperial Palace on November 10 1952. In June 1953, Crown Prince Akihito represented Japan at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.^[2]

Then-Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko made official visits to thirty-seven countries. The Crown Prince assumed the throne after the death of his father on January 7 1989, thus becoming the 125th Japanese monarch, according to the traditional order of succession. Emperor Akihito was formally enthroned as the Emperor of Japan on November 12 1990.^[2] In 1998, during a state visit to the United Kingdom, he was invested with The Most Noble Order of the Garter.^[3]

Emperor Akihito underwent surgery for prostate cancer in January, 2003.^[4] Since succeeding to the throne, Emperor Akihito has made an effort to bring the Imperial Family closer to the Japanese people. The Emperor and Empress of Japan have made official visits to eighteen countries, as well as all forty-seven Prefectures of Japan.^[2]

[edit] Marriage and children

Image:Flag of the Japanese Emperor.svg

Standard of the Emperor of Japan

On April 10 1959, he married Miss Michiko Shōda (born October 24 1934), the eldest daughter of Mr. Hidesaburo Shōda, the president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company.^[2] The new Crown Princess was the first commoner to marry into the Imperial Family. The Emperor and the Empress have three children:

HIH The Crown Prince Naruhito (b. February 23 1960),
HIH The Prince Akishino (Fumihito, b. November 30 1965, titled Akishino-no-miya) and
Sayako Kuroda, formerly HIH The Princess Sayako (titled Nori-no-miya or Princess Nori, b. April 18 1969).^[2]

[edit] Ichthyological research

Akihito is known as an ichthyological researcher, especially studies in the taxonomy of family gobies. He produced articles for publication in Japanese and English scholarly journals such as Gene or Japanese Journal of Ichthyology^[5].

He also wrote some articles about the early period of the Japanese science history in Edo or Meiji Era, which were published in Science^[6] and Nature^[7]. In 2005 a newly described goby was named Exyrias akihito in his honour.

[edit] Political activities

Image:Emperor Akihito and empress Michiko of japan.jpg

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan

Despite being strictly constrained by his constitutional position, he also issued several wide-ranging statements of remorse to Asian countries, for their suffering under Japanese occupation, beginning with an expression of remorse to China made in April 1989, three months after the death of his father, Emperor Shōwa.

On December 23 2001, during his annual birthday meeting with reporters, the Emperor, in response to a reporter's question about the tensioned relation with Korea, remarked that he felt a kinship with Korean peninsula and went on to explain his feeling as resulting from the classical book Shoku Nihongi that the mother of Emperor Kammu (736–806), was one of 10th descendants of the king of Baekje, Muryeong.^[8] The Emperor also noted that Koreans who migrated to Japan in ancient times introduced some aspects of culture and technology to the country, and that the regrettable fact that Japan’s exchanges with Korea have not all been so friendly should never be forgotten ^[9]. These remarks were reported and became headlines in the South Korean Media^[10].

In June 2005, the Emperor visited the U.S. territory of Saipan, the site of one of the most afflicting World War II battles from June 15 to July 9 1944 (Battle of Saipan). Accompanied by Empress Michiko, he offered prayers and flowers at several memorials, honouring not only the Japanese who died, but also American soldiers, Korean laborers, and local islanders. It was the first trip by a Japanese monarch to a World War II battlefield abroad. The Saipan journey was received with high praise by the Japanese people, as were the Emperor's visits to war memorials in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa in 1995.

On September 6, 2006, the Emperor celebrated the birth of his first grandson, Prince Hisahito, the third child of the Emperor's younger son. Prince Hisahito is the first male heir born to the Japanese imperial family in 41 years (since his father Prince Akishino) and could avert a possible succession crisis as the Emperor's elder son, the Crown Prince, has only one daughter, Princess Aiko. Under Japan's current male-only succession law, Princess Aiko is not eligible for the throne. The birth of Prince Hisahito could mean that proposed changes to the law to allow Aiko to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne will not go through after being temporarily shelved following the announcement of Princess Kiko's third pregnancy in February 2006.

[edit] Ancestors

**Akihito's ancestors in three generations**
Akihito	Father: Emperor Shōwa	Paternal Grandfather: Emperor Taishō	Paternal Great-grandfather: Emperor Meiji
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Adopted: Empress Shōken - Actual: Yanagiwara Naruko
		Paternal Grandmother: Empress Teimei	Paternal Great-grandfather: Prince Kujō Michitaka
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Noma Ikuko
	Mother: Empress Kōjun	Maternal Grandfather: Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi	Maternal Great-grandfather: Prince Kuni Asahiko
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Isume Makiko
		Maternal Grandmother: Princess Shimazu Chikako	Maternal Great-grandfather: Prince Shimazu Tadayoshi
			Maternal Great-grandmother: