The Imperial Family and Hate Crimes


As an axiomatic truth, most Japanese right-wingers must love the emperor. However, online right-wingers tend to have a different mental situation. Some online right-wingers hate certain members of the imperial family, and go so far as to commit hate crimes.

This kind of right-winger wants to criticize the existing emperor and his family. They feel disaffected by recent behaviors of the emperor and his family. Contents run thus: “Abandoning convention, Emperor Akihito decided his abdication before death. When Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visit victims of extraordinary accidents, they kneel-down so that their eyes are level with victims. Exactly, why did the Emperor and his family never visit to Yasukuni Shrine that honors the war dead collectively?”

Historically, the abdication of the emperor before death is an ordinal action; not only this, but also struggles of power have changed emperors. Therefore, the self-decision of Emperor Akihito is normal in the Japanese imperial tradition. Additionally, but for a short time in the late modern period, the emperor existed as a symbol of real sovereign justification, not as factual sovereigns. Yasukuni? Briefly, in the late modern period, the Meiji, Taisho and Showa Emperors were seated as absolute sovereigns who could declare hostilities and end hostilities. Generally, about the responsibility for war came to be expressed as follows. Showa Emperor was able to avoid charges as a war criminal, however the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals sentenced to death seven persons as class-A war criminals. Until 1977, it was said Yasukuni Shrine did not honor class-A war criminals collectively; collective honoring was declared abruptly. The emperor has never visited Yasukuni Shrine. A memorandum of Tomohiko Tomida, third chairman of the Imperial Household Agency, revealed that Emperor Hirohito showed a sense of discomfort concerning Yasukuni Shrine. But a breakdown of the issue is not the aim of this essay.

There are more criticisms. A Journalist Mr. M the end of the phrase, insists that Crown Princess Masako did not come from a true Japanese Family. In addition, they say that in her marriage, the Buraku Liberation League worked behind the scenes. On SNS, his Mr. M’s followers are disseminating his views. From the context, it would seem that she came from a Buraku (or Korean) family. There are many other rumors intended to make her unclean. For example, her family had holdings in the Chisso Corporation, from which people in Minamata, Kumamoto, suffered, from mercury poisoning. It is implied that Crown Princess Masako escaped to a life of ease as a member of the imperial family. Princess Kiko's father is Tatsuhiko Kawashima, a former professor of Gakushuin University. Some right-wingers rumored that he had Buraku origins because he studied the Buraku issue. And so it goes.

It is impossible to prove scientifically whether these rumors are true. It is, additionally, unnecessary. The Japanese are constructed of many races, tribes, and nations. In short, the Japanese are a multiethnic existence. Even if persons believe such rumors, and that Burakumin are not themselves, they have no measure of proof. Who can claim to have no Burakumin ancestors? One non-Burakumin historian revealed that if he went back several generations, there could be anybody’s family in his bloodline. Who can say that a family came from Buraku? No one can say what is true. Such rumors do not threaten the lives of the Japanese Imperial Family. However, to Burakumin, it will work awkwardly again. When someone sets someone up as the villain, they frequently mention Burakumin as an embodiment of evil. They also insert Burakumin in their world. This is a problem in the mental structure the Japanese, that easily accepts discrimination. Vulgar ethics control the Japanese mentality.


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