Emperor of Japan

The Emperor of Japan (天皇 tennō) is a constitutionally-recognized symbol of the Japanese nation and the unity of its people. He is the head of the Japanese Imperial Family, the royal family of Japan.

Roles

The emperor's role is defined in Chapter I of the 1947 Constitution of Japan. Article 1 defines the emperor as the symbol of state and the unity of the people, Article 3 requires the approval of the cabinet for all acts of the emperor in matters of state, Article 4 specifically states that the emperor shall not have powers related to government, Article 6 gives the emperor the power to appoint the Prime Minister and the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, each as designated by the diet and cabinet, respectively, and Article 7 gives the emperor power to perform various ministerial functions typical of a head of state, subject to the advice and approval of the cabinet. In contrast with other constitutional monarchs, the Emperor of Japan has no reserve powers.

Related Topics:
Constitution of Japan - Reserve power

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Although the emperor performs many of the roles of a head of state, there has been a persistent controversy within Japan as to whether the emperor is in fact a true monarch in a political sense or merely a hereditary pretender, as a political servant of a constitutional parliamentary republic. In a traditional monarchy political power devolves from the sovereign that is the monarch, with power being exercised by elected legislators on behalf of the so-called Royal prerogative and by practice of long established custom or constitutional convention. However, if there is no royal prerogative then the people who made it so by the right to make and amend the constitution are the sovereign, and the system is reversed, with the monarch actually being subordinate to them. According to this theory the emperor is best understood as a political actor whose embodiment is a mock up of a role required under Westminster system of government, but not the "head of the state" as such because he is not the sovereign. Efforts in the 1950s by conservative powers to amend the constitution to explicitly name the emperor as head of state were rejected. Regardless, the emperor does perform all the diplomatic functions normally associated with a head of state and as a result is recognized as such by foreign powers.

Related Topics:
Head of state - Monarch - Pretender - Republic - Royal prerogative - Constitutional convention - 1950s

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~