Japan’s Emperor Emeritus Turns 91, Lives Quiet Life While Caring for Empress Emerita

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:00 JST, December 23, 2024

The Emperor Emeritus turned 91 on Monday, living a quiet, orderly life while caring for the Empress Emerita, who fractured her upper right femur in October.

According to the Imperial Household Agency, the Emperor Emeritus visited the Empress Emerita twice in the hospital. On the day she was discharged, he greeted her at the entrance of their residence, the Sento Palace in Motoakasaka, Tokyo, holding out his hand in welcome.

The Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita take morning and evening walks at their residence and elsewhere.

The Emperor Emeritus keeps up with domestic and overseas events through newspapers and television. He is especially concerned about people on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, which was struck by an earthquake on New Year’s Day and heavy rain in September.

The Emperor Emeritus also reflects on World War II. On each of four anniversaries — the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the end of World War II — he offers a moment of silence in tandem with related ceremonies.

Researching gobies is the Emperor Emeritus’ life work. He works on two themes, including the reexamination of papers he wrote in the past, three times a week at the biological research institute at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and his residence.

The Emperor Emeritus is interested in the goby family specimens collected in Japan 200 years ago by the German naturalist Philipp Franz von Siebold, and reads related literature.

He was diagnosed with a disorder in the right part of his heart in July 2022, and recently the level of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in the Emperor Emeritus’ blood, a common diagnostic index of heart disorder, has been slightly high.

Though a small amount of pleural effusion has also been observed, he continues to be treated with medication and restricting his fluid intake, so his condition remains relatively stable. During meals, he refrains from talking to prevent accidental ingestion.

Birthday celebrations on Monday were to be kept simple, with a slight increase in attendees compared to last year.