A novice Japanese lawmaker who wanted to draw attention to the Fukushima nuclear crisis has caused uproar by doing something taboo: handing a letter to the emperor.
The ruckus began at an annual autumn Imperial Palace garden party last week. As Emperor Akihito and his wife, Michiko, greeted a line of guests, outspoken actor-turned-lawmaker Taro Yamamoto gave the emperor the letter - a gesture considered both impolite and inappropriate.
Video of the encounter, repeatedly aired on television, shows the 79-year-old emperor calmly taking the letter, written on a folded “washi” paper with ink and brush, and briefly talking with Yamamoto. An apparently wary Empress Michiko gently pulled her husband’s elbow from behind. The chief steward, who was standing next to Akihito, grabbed the letter the instant the emperor turned to him.
Yamamoto’s action drew criticism from both ends of the ideological spectrum and left many Japanese baffled by what they consider to be a major breach of protocol: reaching out to the emperor in an unscripted act.
I just wanted the emperor to know the reality
The controversy shows how the role of Japan’s emperor remains a sensitive issue, nearly 70 years after Akihito’s father, Emperor Hirohito, renounced his divinity following Japan’s defeat in the second world war and became a symbol of the state.