Path Dependency of the Japanese Emperorship: The Case of Emperor Akihito’s Abdication

Abstract

On August 8, 2016, Japanese Emperor Akihito expressed his desire to abdicate the throne in the coming few years. The eighty-two-year-old, who had experienced health problems in recent years, did not wish to remain emperor if he had to curtail his official public duties due to age-related concerns over his ability to carry them out. This is the very first case of abdication in the history of modern Japanese emperorship. However, the Japanese government and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo prefer a one-off special law, rather than a permanent change in the Imperial Household Law. I explore the reasons for this phenomenon and hypothesize that, in response to external shocks such as abdication, the Japanese emperorship system makes only temporary changes rather than permanent modifications of the Imperial Household Law as the institution follows the path dependency of historical institutionalism. For this reason, I argue, the possibility of seeing a reigning Japanese empress in the near future will be remote, as historical institutionalism suggests. This likely is due to the unique importance of the Japanese emperorship to conservative Japanese. However, gender equality of Japanese Emperorship may become an important factor in the future. Japanese emperorship is indispensable element to understand Japanese modern politics and most misunderstood Japanese institution in Korean society. To understand the modern Japanese emperorship which experienced huge changes after world war II, this abdication is most important incident in modern Japanese history and great case of showing constitutional monarchy status unlike militarism emperorship in the past.