Prior to Akihito, the last emperor to abdicate was Emperor Kokaku in 1817 in the later part of the Edo Period, and the royal male line is unbroken, records show, for at least 14 centuries.

Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko enjoyed a special exhibition on June 9 in Tokyo commemorating the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s return to Japan from U.S. rule. The couple ...

Six imperial family members aged 65 or older, including Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, received COVID-19 vaccinations on June 1. Akihito, 87, and Michiko, 86, got their jabs ...

Akihito, who abdicated in April, was a paradoxical figure: a hereditary monarch, the son of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, strictly barred from political utterance, who even so stood out against the ...