By Yibo Sun
“You can’t be regal and common at the same time.” This was the central critique of the British monarchy of long-time republican Labour MP Dennis Skinner. He said it in a 1994 interview during a time in which the British royal family found themselves in a crossroad: should they continue to defend centuries of pomp and ceremony or follow the continental European example of getting close to the people, perhaps emulating the bicycle monarchy in the Netherlands?
One monarchy recently had a literal display of this concept: Japan. Asahi Shimbun published a glowing photo-op of Prince Hisahito riding a bicycle on his university campus. Prince Hisahito is the second in line to the throne, after his father Crown Prince Fumihito. His uncle and aunt, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visited the Netherlands from June 17th-19th at the invitation of King Willem-Alexander. However, let us not be fooled by the Emperor’s nephew’s cycling commute: the Japanese monarchy’s PR strategy is to firmly defend the “mystique” and keep their distance with the people.
Japan has the world’s longest continuous monarchy, although power was mostly held by shōguns (military rulers) during pre-modern times. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan modernised under a constitution that granted significant power to the emperor while allowing semi-democratic elections similar to European countries at the time. The democratisation came into conflict with militarisation under fanatic nationalism guided by devotion to the emperor, eventually turning Japan into a military dictatorship. In the Tokyo Trial after the war, the American authorities went out of their way to protect Emperor Hirohito from any responsibility. Here lies a fundamental difference between the place the monarchy has in Dutch and Japanese public consciousness: Queen Wilhelmina was the symbol of anti-Nazi resistance while Emperor Hirohito was the symbol of the lost cause of the Japanese militarist right.
In hindsight, we can claim that a “people’s monarchy” is easier to achieve when people remember your family for the “right” things, such as fighting the Nazis (notwithstanding the problematic Nazi connections of Prince Claus). The post-war American occupation of Japan was short but transformative. General Douglas MacArthur made sure the new post-war constitution stripped all reserve powers away from the monarch, not giving the emperor the possibility of vetoing bills or mediating government formation. Yet, this detachment from politics is a double-edge sword, as it solidifies the “mystique” of the imperial throne. The emperor does not comment on politics and is above the people. The emperor whom kamikaze pilots yelled to revere in their last moments was the same emperor that presided over decades of peaceful post-war economic growth under a pacificist democratic constitution.
Then, there is no wonder that right-wingers in Japan have never accepted Japan’s guilt in the war. The imperial family is de facto not allowed to be caricatured: major news outlets practice self-censorship. Japan is the only liberal democratic monarchy in which no republican party exists in parliament. The radical left in European monarchies at least still keeps republicanism in their manifesto (e.g. the Dutch SP). The Japanese Communist Party long gave up that fight, with their focus being redirected to allowing women to succeed the throne (Japan is also the only liberal democratic monarchy that does not allow a female monarch). The other radical left party Reiwa Shinsengumi is so proud of the monarchy that they put the current emperor’s era (Reiwa) in their party name.
When the Japanese emperor and empress visits the Netherlands this month, the contrast cannot be more stark. The Dutch support their monarchy because “the king is like one of us.” The Japanese support their monarchy because of reverence and tradition. While minority voices in the Netherlands are talking about republicanism, the radical left in Japan is only talking about allowing female succession. Even that does not seem likely to happen, as conservatives are pushing to add branches to the imperial family in order to find more male heirs.
Ultimately, each PR strategy has its own pros and cons. Perhaps it’s important to heed to Dennis Skinner’s point that you cannot have them both. Skinner sniped at the ruling free-market conservatives at the time in the interview, saying unlike Margeret Thatcher, he would give the British royal family jobs instead of seeing them suffer after the monarchy is abolished. “Prince Philip could be running a kebab shop in North London,” he mocked. In the Netherlands, it wouldn’t be such a bad look. In Japan, pitchforks would be raised.
