For the first time in two centuries, the Emperor of Japan has announced that he will abdicate his throne:
Emperor Akihito will abdicate on April 30, 2019. This is what has been decided today by the special committee to discuss fundamental issues regarding the imperial family. It is the first time in 200 years that an emperor is proclaimed while his predecessor is still alive.
On December 8, the Council of the Imperial House, composed of legislators, magistrates and members of the House, will definitively approve the succession to the throne of Hereditary Prince Naruhito.
The Emperor’s abdication will end the Heisei era, currently in its 31st year. From 1 May 2019, Akihito will assume the title of “joko”, abbreviation of “daijo tenno”, or retired sovereign.
With the constitution in force since the Second World War, the Japanese emperor has ceased to be considered a deity and has assumed a limited symbolic role without power. The constitution, however, does not foresee the succession of a living emperor, which is why the Japanese government had to cope with the request of the sovereign with a specific norm that filled the legislative vacuum.
On the throne since 1989, Akihito expressed his desire to step down in a video message broadcast in August 2016, arguing that he was no longer able to carry out his duties. He will be 84 years old on December 23, and has undergone heart surgery as well as treatment for prostate cancer.
The last emperor to abdicate was Kokaku in 1817. In Japan, however, this is not an exceptional fact, but a return to the past: more than half of the 125 emperors have renounced the title while still alive. (source)
The Japanese Imperial tradition dates back to the 6th century BC and is an integral part of the Shinto religion, for according to Japanese belief, the Emperor is a living God who is worshiped as part of their religion. As the article notes, there is nobody set up to replace him so far.
This may not seem like a major issue, for kings and emperors come and go throughout history. However, whenever there is a major change to a royal dynasty, empire, or system, it usually means that something major is happening with consequences that will last for generations. This does not matter whether the current or even preceding monarchs were “good” or “bad,” because it is the change of power that creates a vacuum into which people, especially those with ambitious or evil ideas, can and will exploit for their own gain.
In France, the destruction of the monarchy in the French Revolution was engineered by revolutionary groups, namely the Freemasons, as part of an anti-Clerical, anti-Christian agenda. It did not matter that the monarchy had become corrupt or was even doing corrupt deeds for decades, the fact is that the legitimate disgust the people had was used to depose their rulers, and in exchange they received even worse rulers in the form of unaccountable private financial and industrial interests who have controlled the nation since. This likewise took place all across Europe such as in the Italian unification under the Mason Giuseppe Garibali, or the Mexican Revolution with Plutarco Elias Calles to name a few.
In Turkey, the destruction of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the creation of the secular Turkish state, engineered after World War I, began the process of fomenting Islamic unrest that has built for almost a century. Now, under Turkish President Erdogan and his pro-Ottoman rhetoric, he is discussing reviving the Caliphate and with that the Turkish Imperial past.
In Russia, the monarchy was intentionally destroyed after World War I and with it came the Soviet Union. It did not matter about the many corruptions of the royalty, for the fact is that Russia was left in a far more miserable condition and still has yet to recover from the ravages of the Socialists.
It is of particular interest to note that the Emperor of Japan, the “living god” as he is called, will choose to step down from his throne at a time when Japanese nationalism is rising, that Japan is working on building nuclear technology for the production of nuclear weapons, and then selling said technology with American help to nations such as Turkey. Likewise, it comes at a time when President Trump has expressed great support for Japan and is encouraging the rearmament of Japan as Japan is working with Germany and Turkey for the promotion of eugneicsy,.
Notice that he is resigning on April 30th, thus making his last day in office the celelbration of Showa Day, a major Japanese holiday on the Shinto Calendar that celebrates Emperor Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan during World War II. For decades it was not permitted to be celebrated in Japan because it glorified Japan’s involvement in World War II and all of the atrocities that came with it:
Emperor Hirohito died on January 7, 1989. April 29 was subsequently no longer celebrated as The Emperor’s Birthday but instead as Greenery Day, part of Japan’s Golden Week. After a series of failed legislative attempts beginning in 2000,[citation needed] the April 29 holiday was finally renamed Shōwa Day in May 2007, and Greenery Day was moved from April 29 to May 4.
According to the then-main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (which backed the bill for the first time after many years of refusal), the holiday encourages public reflection on the turbulent 63 years of Hirohito’s reign rather than glorifying the emperor himself.[2] Hirohito’s reign saw, among other things, the end of the Taishō Democracy, the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, a period of “government by assassination” including the attempted coups of May 15, 1932 and February 26, 1936, the rise of the totalitarian Taisei Yokusankai, World War II, the post-war occupation, the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens and the Japanese post-war economic miracle. (source)
Keep an eye on this story because there is more here than meets the eye. Far from this being the first abdication in nearly two centuries and the first one since the beginning of “modern” Japanese history, and given her historical past and the nature of this resignation, there is a strong chance this is a planned political maneuver intended to position Japan and her people to participate in a future conflict as she did in World War II.