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Japanese Emperor Akihito seems to have health issues

Posted November. 10, 2015 08:33,   

한국어

In a Japanese city on October 25, there was an incident that made people suspicious about Japanese Emperor Akihito’s health, as he suddenly asked the congress chair of Toyama Prefecture if the winner for the best writing award was announced, just before the closing.

The emperor had seen the announcement first hand and even given a round of applause just 30 minutes ago. The congress chair, Sakae Yokoyama, quickly said that the announcement had been already made with a perplexed face. He hastily closed the event while the audience who didn’t know what was happening on the stage were left dumbfounded.

When asked by the palace press who got the sense that something went wrong, a palace official said that the emperor had reconfirmed just in case. This spread from mouth to mouth, and has been revealed to the public by articles written by the Tokyo newspaper and a weekly magazine this week.

The general sentiment among Japanese is that the incident cannot be overlooked. The contest has been attended by Emperor Akihito since 1981, when he was a prince, and the contents followed the precedent. Moreover, the kid who won the first place had made the audience laugh by saying, "The tradition of yellow tail is a unique treasure to Toyama Prefecture.” It was hard to believe that the emperor forgot the announcement itself within 30 minutes when he had applauded the kid.

Emperor Akihito is 82 years old this year, and a similar scene had taken place earlier this year at the memorial ceremony for war victims on August 15. At that time, he was supposed to deliver a speech after paying 1 minute of silent tribute at noon, but he started to read out the script immediately upon the time signal. It was rather shocking to Japanese people since he had been keeping the tradition strictly for decades.

The king had to undergo a surgery for prostate cancer in 2002, and a coronary artery bypass surgery in 2012. Recently he has been repeating same questions even with his hearing aid. One of palace officials worried that he has become forgetful lately.

Emperor Akihito has shown different attitude toward historical issues from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by saying that he "is deeply regretful" at the memorial for war victims, which was the first time to say so at an official event. He is considered an "icon of pacifist" among progressive groups in Japan.



peacechaos@donga.com