What it’s like to...
Meet a future monarch
Glenn Adams
Group Study Exchange
When Akihito, the 85-year-old emperor of Japan, stepped down from the Chrysanthemum Throne last spring, it brought back memories of my meeting with him more than 40 years ago at the Imperial Palace.
In April 1978, I was part of a six-person Group Study Exchange sponsored by Rotary; the Japanese would later send a delegation to our Philadelphia-area district. Because of Rotary’s high standing in Japan, we received first-class treatment throughout our six-week visit: We stayed in four-star hotels, dined extravagantly, and rode around in black limousines with little flags on the front fenders. We toured agricultural and manufacturing sites, Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market — at the time, the world’s largest — and the National Diet Building, the equivalent of the U.S. Capitol. While sailing the Edo River in an antique boat, we enjoyed a lunch of fish caught, gutted, scaled, and deep-fried during our voyage. At the Supreme Court, a justice insisted we try on his robe; at a sumo school, we sat down to a typical wrestler’s lunch of beer, two cooked fish, seaweed, raw yellowtail fish, cool broth, soy and rice cakes, and noodles.
One of our most memorable excursions began with a train ride from Tokyo. We rode past villages and terraced rice fields. As the mountains drew closer, we switched to three black taxis, which took us up a steep, winding road to a cable car that carried us over a sprawling cedar forest. We disembarked at a gleaming blue lake, Ashinoko, which we sailed across on a replica of a 17th-century boat. The following dawn brought a breathtaking view of snowcapped Mount Fuji.
Our much-anticipated meeting with Akihito, who was then the crown prince — his father, Hirohito, would reign as emperor for another 11 years — took place inside a pine-paneled chamber at the palace. When he entered, our Rotary hosts bowed reverently, as did we, having received a crash course in royal etiquette. Akihito wore a plain blue-gray business suit with a white shirt and dark tie. He spoke softly, and his English was good but deliberate. According to my diary, “he stared straight and unflinchingly as each of us was introduced — by order of age.”
We sat in red chairs near a pair of black lacquer-topped tables. They were set with four ashtrays, matchboxes printed with the royal symbol, and a cigarette case on a silver tray, but I don’t recall anyone smoking during our meeting. As we spoke, servants brought in trays of sweets and green tea, bowing each time without facing the prince directly. Akihito asked about our impressions of Japan, and we mentioned the politeness of the people, the cleanliness of Tokyo, the historic sites we visited, and the foods we had come to enjoy. “The prince,” my diary notes, “remained virtually expressionless most of the time.”
Knowing that we were from Philadelphia, Akihito recalled his visit to that city in 1953, when he was 19. When I asked him what he considered to be the major concern of the Japanese people, he replied that it was preserving their traditions, history, and culture, while integrating them with modern trends and technology.
Our visit ended with good wishes and more bows. If there had been a theme to our conversation, it was maintaining ancient customs in modern times — that, and a word Akihito kept repeating: “harmony.”
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• Illustration by Sébastien Thibault
• This story originally appeared in the January 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.