Government of Japan
The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy in which the power of the Emperor is limited and is relegated to ceremonial duties. As in many other states, the Government is divided into three branches: the Legislative branch, the Executive branch, the Judicial branch; the Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, containing forty-seven administrative divisions, with the Emperor as its head of state, his role is ceremonial and he has no powers related to Government. Instead, it is the Cabinet, comprising the Ministers of State and the Prime Minister, that directs and controls the Government; the Cabinet is the source of power of the Executive branch, is formed by the Prime Minister, the head of government. He or she is appointed to office by the Emperor; the National Diet is the organ of the Legislative branch. It is bicameral, consisting of two houses with the House of Councillors being the upper house, the House of Representatives being the lower house.
Its members are directly elected from the people. The Supreme Court and other inferior courts make up the Judicial branch, they are independent from the executive and the legislative branches. Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan was ruled by successive military shōguns. During this period, effective power of the government resided in the Shōgun, who ruled the country in the name of the Emperor; the Shoguns were the hereditary military governors, with their modern rank equivalent to a generalissimo. Although the Emperor was the sovereign who appointed the Shōgun, his roles were ceremonial and he took no part in governing the country; this is compared to the present role of the Emperor, whose official role is to appoint the Prime Minister. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 led to the resignation of Shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" the Emperor's orders; this event restored the country to the proclamation of the Empire of Japan. In 1889, the Meiji Constitution was adopted in a move to strengthen Japan to the level of western nations, resulting in the first parliamentary system in Asia.
It provided a form of mixed constitutional-absolute monarchy, with an independent judiciary, based on the Prussian model of the time. A new aristocracy known as the kazoku was established, it merged the ancient court nobility of the Heian period, the kuge, the former daimyōs, feudal lords subordinate to the shōgun. It established the Imperial Diet, consisting of the House of Representatives and the House of Peers. Members of the House of Peers were made up of the Imperial Family, the Kazoku, those nominated by the Emperor, while members of the House of Representatives were elected by direct male suffrage. Despite clear distinctions between powers of the executive branch and the Emperor in the Meiji Constitution and contradictions in the Constitution led to a political crisis, it devalued the notion of civilian control over the military, which meant that the military could develop and exercise a great influence on politics. Following the end of World War II, the Constitution of Japan was adopted as an intention to replace the previous Imperial rule with a form of Western-style liberal democracy.
The Emperor of Japan is the ceremonial head of state. He is defined by the Constitution to be "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people". However, he is not the nominal Chief Executive and he possesses only certain ceremonially important powers, he has no real powers related to the Government as stated in article 4 of the Constitution. Article 6 of the Constitution of Japan delegates the Emperor the following ceremonial roles: Appointment of the Prime Minister as designated by the Diet. Appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as designated by the Cabinet. While the Cabinet is the source of executive power and most of its power is exercised directly by the Prime Minister, several of its powers are exercised by the Emperor; the powers exercised via the Emperor, as stipulated by Article 7 of the Constitution, are: Promulgation of amendments of the constitution, cabinet orders and treaties. Convocation of the Diet. Dissolution of the House of Representatives. Proclamation of general election of members of the Diet.
Attestation of the appointment and dismissal of Ministers of State and other officials as provided for by law, of full powers and credentials of Ambassadors and Ministers. Attestation of general and special amnesty, commutation of punishment and restoration of rights. Awarding of honors. Attestation of instruments of ratification and other diplomatic documents as provided for by law. Receiving foreign ambassadors and ministers. Performance of ceremonial functions; the Emperor is known to hold the nominal ceremonial authority. For example, the Emperor is the only person that has the authority to appoint the Prime Minister though the Diet has the power to designate the person fitted for the position. One such example can be prominently seen in the 2009 Dissolution of the House of Representatives; the House was expected to be dissolved on the advice of the Prime Minister, but was temporarily unable to do so for the next general election, as both the Emperor and Empress were visiting Canada. In this manner, the Emperor's modern role is compared to those of the Shogunate period and much of Japan's history, whereby the Emperor held great symbolic authority but had little political power.
Today, a legacy has somewhat continued for a retired Prime Minister who still wields considerabl
2014 Japanese general election
The 47th general election of members of the House of Representatives of Japan was held on 14 December 2014. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan; as the cabinet resigns in the first post-election Diet session after a general House of Representatives election, the lower house election led to a new designation election of the prime minister in the Diet, the appointment of a new cabinet. The turnout in this election is the lowest in Japanese history. In 2012, the Democratic Party government under Yoshihiko Noda decided to implement a raise of the Japanese consumption tax. Following this move, the Liberal Democratic Party under Shinzo Abe regained control of the Japanese government in the December 2012 general election. Abe proceeded to implement a series of economic programs known as "Abenomics" in a bid to stimulate the economy.
Despite these programs, Japan entered a technical recession in mid-2014, which Abe blamed on the consumption tax hike though many members of the LDP supported the hike. Abe called a snap election on November 18, in part for the purpose of winning LDP backing to postpone the hike and pursue the Abenomics package; the LDP government was expected to win the election in a landslide, many observers viewed the snap election as a mechanism for Abe to entrench his government at a time of relative popularity. The LDP lost a small number of seats but enlarged its majority coalition with Komeito. Turnout was a record low, many voters viewed the election as a waste of time and money. DPJ president Banri Kaieda lost his seat in Tokyo while the Japanese Communist Party doubled in strength; the right-leaning Japan Innovation Party and Party for Future Generations lost seats. The most high-profile LDP candidate to lose re-election is Agriculture Minister Koya Nishikawa, who lost by 199 votes to former Governor of Tochigi Akio Fukuda.
He was questioned in October after receiving financial support from a fraudulent company. Amongst the DPJ members to lose their seats were party leader Banri Kaieda. Party for Future Generations leader Shintaro Ishihara was unsuccessful in his attempt to win a seat after receiving a low position on his party's representative ballot. Former leader of the now-dissolved Your Party and six-term representative for Tochigi-3rd district, Yoshimi Watanabe was defeated; the JCP gained its first single-seat constituency seat since the 1996 election. Amidst a growing anti-base movement in Okinawa, JCP candidate Seiken Akamine unseated LDP incumbent Kōnosuke Kokuba in a night marked with a nationwide JCP surge; the retention referendum to confirm judges of the Supreme Court who have been appointed or not confirmed for 10 years is held together with a lower house election. Subnational elections scheduled for December 14 include the prefectural assembly election in Ibaraki. Another prefectural election in December 2014 is the gubernatorial election in Miyazaki, scheduled for December 21.
Under 2013 changes to the electoral law designed to reduce malapportionment, district boundaries in 17 prefectures have been redrawn and five districts are eliminated without replacement. The number of first-past-the-post seats is reduced to 295, the total number of seats decreases to 475. In November 2015, the Grand Bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the inequality in vote weight due to malapportionment was still in an unconstitutional state. Parties' approval ratings from 2013–14 Cabinet approval/disapproval ratings Media related to Japanese general election, 2014 at Wikimedia Commons
Yukio Edano
Yukio Edano is a Japanese politician and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. He served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister of Economy and Industry in the Democratic Party of Japan cabinet between 2010 and 2012, he has served as the head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan since its formation in October 2017. Edano was born in Utsunomiya on 31 May 1964, he is named after Japanese liberal political figure Yukio Ozaki. Edano graduated from Tohoku University with a degree in law, passed the Japanese bar examination at the age of 24. In the 1993 general election, at the age of 29, Edano joined Morihiro Hosokawa's Japan New Party and won a seat in the Saitama 5th district, he participated in the formation of the "Old" DPJ in 1996. As a legislator, Edano played a role in the government response to the HIV-tainted blood scandal of 1995 and the financial industry reorganization of 1998. Edano was appointed as the secretary general of the DPJ in March 2010 when it was the country's ruling party.
Katsuya Okada, the former Foreign Minister, subsequently replaced him in September 2010. In January 2011, Edano became Chief Cabinet Secretary. In March 2011, he was temporarily appointed head of the Foreign Ministry. In the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, he was the face of the government efforts to combat the aftermath appearing on television to talk about the problems at the two reactor facilities in Fukushima; because of the frequency of his appearances, Twitter users concerned with his health were prompted to post messages asking him to get some sleep. The Twitter hashtag "#edano_nero" became popular, from the imperative word for sleep! in Japanese. As economy minister, Edano approved the introduction of feed-in tariffs on 18 June 2012, whereby a percentage of energy use fees are used to subsidize renewable energy. Edano left the Cabinet following the DPJ's defeat in the December 2012 general election, but retained his seat representing the Saitama 5th district.
Edano was named secretary general of the DPJ in September 2014. He retained this position in the Democratic Party following the merger of the DPJ with the Japan Innovation Party in March 2016. DP leader Renho resigned in July 2017 after the party suffered a poor result in the 2017 Tokyo assembly election. Edano ran in the subsequent leadership election, facing an opponent from the conservative wing of the party in Seiji Maehara. With the liberal wing of the party losing clout due to the influx of conservative Japan Innovation Party members after the merger, Edano only managed to garner 40% of the points up for grabs in the election. In an attempt to unify the party, the freshly-elected leader Maehara appointed Edano as the deputy president. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a surprise announcement for a snap election on 25 September 2017, only three weeks after the DP leadership election. With the party unprepared and in disarray, Maehara was scrambling to find a way to shore up support for the party.
At the same day as Abe's election announcement, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike launched a new conservative party called Kibō no Tō. Seeing Koike's high popularity at that time as a potential asset, Maehara coordinated with Koike on DP candidates' nominations for the election. Koike agreed to endorse DP candidates and Maehara disbanded the party in order to allow the candidates run under the Kibō banner. However, despite Maehara's request, Koike imposed an ideological filter that barred liberal-leaning members of the DP, such as Edano, from joining Kibō. Edano decided to form a separate party to house liberal DP members rejected by Koike. On 2 October 2017, Edano launched the Constitutional Democratic Party as a split from the Democratic Party, becoming the party's leader. Despite being formed only less than three weeks before the election, the CDP ran a efficient campaign with a principled platform and used social media in a level unprecedented in Japanese politics. Edano led the party to become the second largest party in the Diet in the general election.
He serves as Leader of the Opposition. Edano has twin sons. Media related to Yukio Edano at Wikimedia Commons Official website
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is the head of the Imperial Family and the head of state of Japan. Under the 1947 constitution, he is defined as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people." He was the highest authority of the Shinto religion. In Japanese, the Emperor is called Tennō "heavenly sovereign". In English, the use of the term Mikado for the Emperor was once common, but is now considered obsolete; the Emperor of Japan is the only head of state in the world with the English title of "Emperor". The Imperial House of Japan is the oldest continuing monarchical house in the world; the historical origins of the Emperors lie in the late Kofun period of the 3rd–7th centuries AD, but according to the traditional account of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, Japan was founded in 660 BC by Emperor Jimmu, said to be a direct descendant of the sun-goddess Amaterasu. The current Emperor is Akihito, he acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne upon the death of his father, Emperor Shōwa, in 1989. The Japanese government announced in December 2017 that Akihito will abdicate on 30 April 2019.
The role of the Emperor of Japan has alternated between a ceremonial symbolic role and that of an actual imperial ruler. Since the establishment of the first shogunate in 1199, the Emperors of Japan have taken on a role as supreme battlefield commander, unlike many Western monarchs. Japanese Emperors have nearly always been controlled by external political forces, to varying degrees. In fact, between 1192 and 1867, the shōguns, or their shikken regents in Kamakura, were the de facto rulers of Japan, although they were nominally appointed by the Emperor. After the Meiji Restoration in 1867, the Emperor was the embodiment of all sovereign power in the realm, as enshrined in the Meiji Constitution of 1889. Since the enactment of the 1947 Constitution, he has been a ceremonial head of state without nominal political powers. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Imperial Palace has been called Kyūjō Kōkyo, is on the former site of Edo Castle in the heart of Tokyo. Earlier, Emperors resided in Kyoto for nearly eleven centuries.
The Emperor's Birthday is a national holiday. Unlike most constitutional monarchs, the Emperor is not the nominal chief executive. Article 65 explicitly vests executive power in the Cabinet, of which the Prime Minister is the leader; the Emperor is not the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The Japan Self-Defense Forces Act of 1954 explicitly vests this role with the Prime Minister; the Emperor's powers are limited only to important ceremonial functions. Article 4 of the Constitution stipulates that the Emperor "shall perform only such acts in matters of state as are provided for in the Constitution and he shall not have powers related to government." It stipulates that "the advice and approval of the Cabinet shall be required for all acts of the Emperor in matters of state". Article 4 states that these duties can be delegated by the Emperor as provided for by law. While the Emperor formally appoints the Prime Minister to office, Article 6 of the Constitution requires him to appoint the candidate "as designated by the Diet", without giving the Emperor the right to decline appointment.
Article 6 of the Constitution delegates the Emperor the following ceremonial roles: Appointment of the Prime Minister as designated by the Diet. Appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as designated by the Cabinet; the Emperor's other duties are laid down in article 7 of the Constitution, where it is stated that "the Emperor, with the advice and approval of the Cabinet, shall perform the following acts in matters of state on behalf of the people." In practice, all of these duties are exercised only in accordance with the binding instructions of the Cabinet: Promulgation of amendments of the constitution, cabinet orders, treaties. Convocation of the Diet. Dissolution of the House of Representatives. Proclamation of general election of members of the Diet. Attestation of the appointment and dismissal of Ministers of State and other officials as provided for by law, of full powers and credentials of Ambassadors and Ministers. Attestation of general and special amnesty, commutation of punishment and restoration of rights.
Awarding of honors. Attestation of instruments of ratification and other diplomatic documents as provided for by law. Receiving foreign ambassadors and ministers. Performance of ceremonial functions. Regular ceremonies of the Emperor with a constitutional basis are the Imperial Investitures in the Tokyo Imperial Palace and the Speech from the Throne ceremony in the House of Councillors in the National Diet Building; the latter ceremony opens extra sessions of the Diet. Ordinary sessions are opened each January and after new elections to the House of Representatives. Extra sessions convene in the autumn and are opened then. Although the Emperor has been a symbol of continuity with the past, the degree of power exercised by the Emperor has varied throughout Japanese history. In the early 7th century, the Emperor had begun to be called the "Son of Heaven"; the title of Emperor was borrowed from China, being derived from Chinese characters and was retroactively applied to the legendary Japanese rulers who reigned before the 7th–8th centuries AD.
According to the traditional account of the Nihon Shoki, Japan was founded by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. Modern historians agree that the Emperors before the possible late 3rd century AD ruler known traditionally as Emperor Ōjin are legendary. Emperor Ank
Line of succession to the Japanese throne
The current line of succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne is based on the Imperial Household Law. At present, only direct male-line males are allowed to ascend the throne; the list below contains all princes eligible to succeed to the throne. The Imperial House Law of 1889 was the first Japanese law to regulate the imperial succession; until October 1947, when it was abolished and replaced with the Imperial Household Law, it defined the succession to the throne under the principle of agnatic primogeniture. In all instances, the succession proceeded from the eldest male heir to the youngest. In the majority of cases, the legitimate sons and male heirs of an emperor were favoured over those born to concubines. Illegitimate sons would only be eligible to succeed if no other male heirs existed in the direct line; those in the line of succession suffering from "incurable diseases of mind or body," or when "any other weighty cause exists," could be passed over with the advice of the Imperial Family Council, headed by the emperor, after consulting the Privy Council.
On 11 February 1907, an amendment was made to the Imperial House Law to reduce the numbers of imperial princes in the shinnōke and ōke, the cadet branches of the imperial family, who were fifth– or sixth-generation descendants of an emperor. The amendment provided for princes to leave the imperial family, either by imperial decree or by imperial sanction, they were granted a family name and assumed the status of nobles with the peerage titles of marquis or count, thereby becoming subjects. Alternatively, a prince could be formally adopted into a noble family or succeed to the headship of an imperial family line as a noble. Under the terms of the amendment, those former princes and their descendants who left the imperial family were excluded from the line of succession and made ineligible to return to the imperial family at any future date; as of October 14, 1947, when the Imperial Household Law abolished the shinnoke and oke cadet branches, the immediate line of succession to the Japanese throne was as follows: Prior to this date, the imperial succession was defined by the Imperial House Law of 1889.
As the Taishō Emperor had no brothers, if the main family line had become extinct, the imperial line would have continued through the Fushimi-no-miya shinnoke cadet branch under the terms of the 1889 house law. The Fushimi-no-miya house constitute the nearest direct-male line of imperial descendants. Prince Fushimi Kuniie had 17 sons, 3 of which were by the prince's wife Princess Takatsukasa Hiroko and the rest were all by various concubines, of whom five begat oke that were extant as of 1947. However, the sons bore by Princess Hiroko and their descendants had more prior right to succeed the throne since Hiroko was the only official wife of Prince Kuniie. A 1907 amendment to the Imperial House Law further reduced the number of imperial princes eligible to succeed to the throne. By the amended 1889 house law, the imperial line of succession continued as follows: The Nashimoto collateral branch became extinct in 1951, followed by the Yamashina and Kan'in branches in 1987 and 1988; the main Fushimi-no-miya line and the Kuni, Asaka, Higashikuni and Kitashirakawa collateral branches remain extant as of 2015.
The present head of the Fushimi-no-miya family and the head of the Kitashirakawa branch lack male heirs to continue their lineages, however. Debate over the imperial succession was first raised in the late 1920s after the Shōwa Emperor's accession. For the first eight years of their marriage, the emperor and empress only had girls; as a career military officer and known nationalist with radical leanings, the prince enjoyed close relations with the rightist faction in the military. During the early 1930s, his strong support for the "Imperial Way" faction in the army was an open secret. A large number of "Imperial Way" followers in the military were critical of the emperor for his scientific interests, self-effacing demeanour and presumed pacifism, considering him a "mediocre" individual manipulated by corrupt advisors. With his political leanings, Prince Chichibu antagonized his elder brother, who reprimanded him on several occasions and arranged for his posting to unimportant positions where he could be more watched.
Apart from Prince Chichibu, the February 26 rebels relied on the tacit support of Princes Asaka and Higashikuni, both senior army generals and imperial princes who were leaders within the "Imperial Way" faction and had close ties to prominent rightist groups. If the emperor had either died or had been compelled to abdicate, Prince Chichibu would have received strong support from the rightists as the regent for Crown Prince Akihito. Still, in 1938 Prince Saionji expressed his worry that Prince Chichibu might someday usurp the throne by violent means. By October 1940, Prince Ch
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
Fumihito, Prince Akishino
Fumihito, Prince Akishino is a member of the Japanese imperial family. He is the younger son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko and second in line to the Chrysanthemum Throne after his elder brother Crown Prince Naruhito. Since his marriage in June 1990, he has held the title of Akishino-no-miya and headed his own branch of the imperial family; the prince was born on 30 November 1965 at the Imperial Household Agency Hospital, Tokyo Imperial Palace in Tokyo. His given name is Fumihito, his mother, Empress Michiko, is a convert to Shinto from Roman Catholicism. His childhood appellation was Prince Aya, he attended the secondary schools of the Gakushuin. He played tennis in secondary schools of the Gakushuin. In April 1984, he entered the Law Department of Gakushuin University, where he studied law and biological science. After graduating from the university with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science, he studied the taxonomy of fish at St John's College, Oxford in the United Kingdom from October 1988 to June 1990.
Upon the death of his grandfather, Emperor Shōwa, in 7 January 1989, he became second-in-line to the throne after his elder brother, Crown Prince Naruhito. Prince Fumihito received a PhD degree in ornithology from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in October 1996, his doctoral dissertation was titled, "Molecular Phylogeny of Jungle Fowls, genus Gallus and Monophyletic Origin of Domestic Fowls". He conducted field research in Indonesia in 1993 and 1994, in Yunnan Province in the People's Republic of China; when the current Emperor was still Crown Prince, he introduced tilapia to Thailand as an important source of protein. Tilapia can be cultured and Prince Fumihito, known as "catfish specialist," has managed to maintain and expand the aquacultural studies with the people of Thailand. Prior to Fumihito's birth, the announcement about the then-Crown Prince Akihito's engagement and marriage to the then-Ms. Michiko Shōda had drawn opposition from traditionalist groups, because Shōda came from a Roman Catholic family.
Although Shōda was never baptized, she was educated in Catholic schools and seemed to share the faith of her parents. Rumors speculated that Empress Kōjun had opposed the engagement. After the death of Fumihito's paternal grandmother Empress Kōjun in 2000, Reuters reported that she was one of the strongest opponents of her son's marriage, that in the 1960s, she had driven her daughter-in-law and grandchildren to depression by persistently accusing her of not being suitable for her son. On 29 June 1990, Prince Fumihito married Kiko Kawashima, the daughter of Tatsuhiko Kawashima and his wife, Kazuyo; the couple met. Like his father, the present Emperor, the Prince married outside the former aristocracy and former collateral branches of the imperial family. Upon marriage, he received the title Prince Akishino and authorization from the Imperial Household Economy Council to form a new branch of the Imperial Family; the marriage was bitterly resented by officials at the Imperial Household Agency, as well as Prince Akishino's paternal-grandmother Empress Dowager Nagako.
Prince and Princess Akishino have two daughters and one son: Princess Mako Princess Kako Prince Hisahito Prince Akishino serves as the president of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology and the Japanese Association of Zoological Gardens and Aquariums. He is the honorary president of the World Wide Fund for Nature Japan, the Japan Tennis Association, the Japan-Netherlands Association, he is a visiting professor of Tokyo University of Agriculture. Prince and Princess Akishino foster friendly relations with foreign countries by representing Japan at select international events. For example, they traveled to the Netherlands in August 2009 to commemorate 400 years of trade between the Netherlands and Japan, they were hosted by Queen Beatrix in The Hague. Their public activities included meeting Japanese language students, visiting the Siebold House, a university hospital, two other museums. At the Dutch National Archives, they attended the opening of a major exhibition of Japan-related material, "From Here to Tokyo, 400 Years of Trade with Japan".
In addition, this official visit included talks with the Dutch prime minister. On other occasion, they traveled to Hungary in March 2007. In addition, Prince Akishino carried out public duties on behalf of the Emperor when he was hospitalized, he and other members of the imperial family visited the affected areas after the Great East Japan earthquake in March 2011. As legislation has been passed allowing his father's abdication, he is expected to become heir-presumptive to the throne on 30 April 2019. Prince Akishino is a big fan of an avid tennis player; as a student, Fumihito ranked among the top ten doubles tennis players in the Kantō Region. He is known as a successor to Arisugawa school of calligraphy. 30 November 1965 – 29 June 1990: His Imperial Highness The Prince Aya 29 June 1990 – present: His Imperial Highness The Prince Akishino Japan: Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum Belgium: Grand Cros
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This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/. - Japan
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