Japan's new emperor takes throne day after his father abdicates
Japan's new Emperor Naruhito inherited the Imperial regalia of sword and jewel and seals as proof of his succession in his first official duty as emperor Wednesday a day after his father abdicated, The Associate Press reported.
Naruhito succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne at midnight after Emperor Emeritus Akihito retired the previous day. At another ceremony later in the morning, Naruhito will make his first address to the people.
His wife, Empress Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat, and their daughter Princess Aiko, were barred from the first ceremony, where only adult male royals participated.
He is the nation's 126th emperor, according to a palace count historians say could include mythical figures until around the 5th century.
The emperor under Japan's constitution is a symbol without political power. Naruhito is free of influence from Japan's imperial worship that was fanned by the wartime militarist government that had deified the emperor as a living god until his grandfather renounced that status after Japan's 1945 war defeat.