This article introduces an essay by Professor Emeritus Sukehiro Hirakawa of the University of Tokyo, published in Sankei Shimbun’s “Seiron” column on May 19, 2026. Hirakawa argues that Japan’s imperial culture is a source of national pride worthy of preservation in world history, discussing Japan’s national character, the authority of the Emperor, the restoration of male-line members of former imperial branch families, and concerns over proposals that may lead to matrilineal succession.

The following is from Sankei Shimbun dated May 19.
Imperial Culture That Should Be Preserved in World History
Sukehiro Hirakawa, Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo
May 19, 2026
While my grandchild was in the United States, he saw Shohei Ohtani hit a home run at a baseball game, and he was extremely pleased, saying it was the best in the world.
It was indeed a great hit.
But to take pride in being Japanese merely because of that is childish.
Then what else does our country have to be proud of?
When I was in elementary school in the late 1930s and early 1940s, I was taught that the “unbroken imperial line for ages eternal” was without parallel in the world.
Since ancient times, the Japanese have understood our national character by comparison with the imperial system of neighboring China, which has the tradition of dynastic revolution.
When I was in my second year of junior high school and the war ended with the Imperial Rescript broadcast, I felt relieved.
Even under the Occupation, I was grateful, even as a child, that the Imperial Household remained safe and that the national polity was preserved.
The national polity means the national character.
If anything were to happen to President Xi Jinping in our neighboring country, which calls itself a People’s Republic but may also be called an imperial system, what kind of confusion would arise in that vast Chinese state without an electoral system?
In Britain and France, Great Writers; in America, Politicians
Countries called great powers have great figures whose names remain in history.
The British proudly say, “Even if the British Empire should lose colonial India, we still have Shakespeare.
The author of Hamlet and Othello is the world’s greatest dramatic poet.”
When the French writer Gide was asked, “Who does your country have?” he answered, “Victor Hugo, hélas.”
Hugo, the author of Les Misérables, is a world-famous great writer, and Japanese children too have read with absorption the great novel Ah, Mujō, in which Jean Valjean plays an active role.
But by adding “hélas” — unfortunately — Gide implied that Hugo did not reach Shakespeare.
Values differ from country to country.
In America, politicians are respected and men of letters are somewhat looked down upon.
Jun Eto sensed this and felt indignant.
In that country, Franklin Roosevelt is praised as the greatest politician of the twentieth century.
That made me feel uncomfortable as well.
For he was a cunning president who made Japan strike first and caused the whole American people to join World War II by stirring up the great chorus of “Remember Pearl Harbor.”
Professor Reischauer explained Emperor Meiji to Americans by comparing him with Lincoln, and Meiji Shrine by placing it alongside the Lincoln Memorial.
At that time I felt relieved.
In 1977, when his The Japanese was published, the Japanese politician whose name was still known in America was Tojo, and every time that name was mentioned, Japanese students in America felt ashamed.
(However, later, when I reread the debate at the Tokyo Trial between defendant Hideki Tojo and Prosecutor Keenan, I came to reassess Tojo.
That was because he did not evade responsibility in the slightest, pointed out the lawlessness of the Hull Note, praised the benevolence of His Majesty the Emperor, and stood with dignity.)
Japan’s Pride Is Its National Polity, That Is, Its National Character
Among those of us who received higher education in the late 1940s and 1950s, those who studied in the United States or France tended to argue that republicanism was good, while those who studied in Britain defended monarchy.
However, when American presidents caused political scandals like Nixon or sexual scandals like Clinton, the president, being the embodiment not only of state power but also of state authority, dragged the entire American people into gloom and agitation when his lower body was reported day after day by the mass media.
At that time, I came to reassess Japan as a country with an extremely superior national character.
In Japan, power is entrusted to the prime minister, who as a result is covered in mud through political struggle, while authority is preserved separately by the Emperor.
Today in Japan, revision of the Imperial House Law is being discussed in the Diet, among the public, and in weekly magazines.
The urgent task is to secure and increase legitimate successors to the Imperial Throne.
It would be appropriate to restore male-line males from the former imperial branch families as members of the Imperial Family, and to grant legitimate imperial succession rights from the next generation — that is, the generation born as members of the Imperial Family.
As in Britain, Japan too should clearly publish, in New Year’s Day newspapers and elsewhere, photographs of the imperial successors and their order of succession.
The proposal to have men marry into the existing princely houses through Imperial Princesses or Princesses should be avoided, because it would create confusion of status.
The theory apparently supported by LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Kobayashi Takayuki, that female imperial family members need to retain imperial status in order to be active after marriage, has weak grounds.
The creation of female imperial branch houses has no connection whatsoever with the history of the Imperial Family.
Such proposals would lead to arguments that the spouses and children of female imperial family members should also become imperial family members, and may become a milestone toward a future matrilineal emperor, leading to the destruction of the imperial line.
For Legitimate Imperial Succession
Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has stated that priority should be given to the restoration of the former imperial branch families.
The Japanese woman known throughout the world today is Takaichi, and I would like to respect her opinion.
Incidentally, before Takaichi, the Japanese woman widely known overseas was Murasaki Shikibu a thousand years ago.
That was thanks to Waley’s excellent English translation, The Tale of Genji, which appeared a century ago.
Although it is not written in the Imperial House Law, the Emperor first performs religious rites by “worshiping the abode of Ise.”
It should be clearly stated that when a person appears who does not wish to do this, that person shall be ineligible for imperial succession.
That is because, even though the Emperor has no power, his authority has been preserved because he is the inheritor of traditional religious culture.
And the reason the Emperor is the symbol of Japan is that he is also the symbol of the eternal life of the Japanese people.
(Sukehiro Hirakawa)