TOKYO — Three decades after he ascended the throne and three years after he asked to step down, Japan’s emperor on Tuesday became the country’s first monarch in more than two centuries to abdicate. Emperor Akihito, 85, the son of the wartime emperor Hirohito, relinquished the Chrysanthemum Throne in a short ceremony, passing the symbolic role to his eldest son, Naruhito, 59. The last emperor to abdicate was Kokaku, in 1817. [Read “Survival of the Throne,” a five-episode series on Japan’s royal family.] “I deeply appreciate the Japanese people, who have accepted and supported me as their symbol.”

Source: International New York Times April 30, 2019 04:13 UTC