Emperor Akihito: Japanese monarch declares historic abdication
bbc.com
bbc.com
Now as Akihito abdicates, the whispers of great power conflicts are starting again. Old alliances and coalitions that have kept the peace for 70 years are being questioned. Nationalism is rising throughout the world. I hope the new Emperor’s reign will be just as peaceful as his father’s, but I am pessimistic.
What's strange is that we know peace eventually ends. But I also can't see how we can have a war amongst nuclear powers. Could we have a peaceful war? Is it possible? Is that what the cold war was?
With the creation of the EU, rising china, resurgence russia, india, ASEAN, africa ( eventually ), the geopolitical landscape is going to change. From a historical, economical and demographic perspective, the geopolitical center should move somewhere in europe or asia from the US eventually. There are 1 billion more chinese. One billion more indians. 500 million more europeans. It is a strange quirk of history that the US is the leader of the world.
I'd say the answer is "Look at Syria", proxy wars etc are the current best method for engaging without actually having to fight directly (which just ends super badly as it almost inevitably escalates)
If the there is a conflict in the eastern Pacific, Australia would like join in as well. It is also highly likely that the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland will likely join as well and possibly Germany and France.
South Korea: Climbing Hallasan volcano on Jeju Island. Really neat.
China: Exploring Suzhou/Hangzhou old towns. Suzhou is like the Venice of China.
All these places warrant a trip in and of themselves; but they didn’t feel holy to me if that makes any sense. Imperial Gardens felt different, like one thread of contiguous history, unrent by tragedy and upheaval, touching you on the face.
Anyway, for me, the wall itself didn't evoke anything. I think there was just too much commotion with everyone doing mostly their own thing. I did enjoy watching everyone else experiencing the place, though.
If nothing else, there's a few thousand years of history there to see.
> While the emperor holds no political power, he serves as a national figurehead.
This is rather different compared to the constitutional monarchies that are common in Europe: it's hard to imagine any major political party (even the hard-right parties) arguing against the monarch if the monarch is suggesting a more liberal position.
For some history, this is the second time Abe has been prime minister. The first time he had to resign. This was directly after proposing the constitutional change. Now, Wikipedia (and the western media it seems) reported that Abe resigned due to the poor performance of his economic policies. However, at the time my impression was that he resigned over the backlash to the constitutional proposals. At the time my Japanese wasn't very good, so I could definitely have gotten it wrong, but that was certainly what I understood.
Fast forward to a few years ago. Abe got back into power, instituted his Abenomics and then re-proposed the constitutional changes. It seemed like it was inevitable because they had enough time to push through the changes and write the constitutional law before the next general election. And then out of the blue the emperor announced, "I want to retire. Please implement the constitutional changes that would allow me to do so". These changes, perhaps not incidentally, meant that Abe could not draft his changes until after the next general election.
It has been suggested (by the NHK no less -- unfortunately you'll have to take my word for it, but that's where I heard of the notion) that this was an intentional move by the emperor. Who knows... However it is true that he has been suffering from poor health and has not been able to perform all of his duties.
Anyway, the general election was held and Abe and the LDP survived, so presumably they will go ahead with their plans. However, the latest I've seen is that there is still considerable opposition in the populace (with over 50% of the population opposing any changes to the constitution). The last I heard Abe has said that he might not go forward with it.
They are under increasing pressure from the US, though. Also, Japan has wanted the US out of Okinawa for a long time, with the US always promising that they will leave as soon as their base in Guam is complete (which never seems to happen). I don't think the US will ever leave Okinawa without Japan being able to take military action the in the sea of Japan because otherwise China will pretty much have free reign there. At the moment, all Japan can do is show up with the coast guard and say "Please leave. Pretty please".
A curious point.
(This led to a small group of retired emperors, called the 'cloistered emperors', who were nominally Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens but in fact did much of the actual work of ruling the country, since the actual emperor was too busy with religious duties to exert much political power)
The system in my country is that until you take the throne you get a relatively normal life. Hell doesn't start until you're at least 40. The Royal family has 400 years of experience so they're used to it. Relatively few ran away or killed themselves. Although a few did go nuts. They know it has to be done.
This is the first time that the era has changed when computers were in widespread use, so there already had to be changes from the traditional "we're not going to announce the new era until it starts" (much to the chagrin of the ultra-nationalists).