A Message from the Imperial Family? “Rebellion by Nishimura?" : "I understand the Emperor is concerned."
The statement by the Secretary of the Imperial
Household Agency, "I understand that His Majesty the Emperor is concerned
about this. The statement by the Secretary of the IHA, "I understand that
His Majesty the Emperor is concerned," has been the subject of much
speculation and interpretation.
“Nishimura Rebellion”?
On June 25, at a regular press conference,
Yasuhiko Nishimura, Secretary of the IHA, said, "I understand that His
Majesty the Emperor is concerned about the spread of the new coronavirus due to
the holding of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. This was described as a
"Nishimura Rebellion" by AERA dot., an online magazine affiliated
with the Asahi Shimbun.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/841dece5bc561fe90eafd4f665e440b19e874bb3
In this article, a government official said
that Secretary Nishimura did not make any prior arrangements with the Prime
Minister's Office before making this statement. The Prime Minister's Office had
"never heard of this. For this reason, PM Suga, Chief Cabinet
Secretary Kato, and Minister of the Olympics Marukawa all took the stance of
silence, saying that it was only a personal statement by the Secretary.
Originally, under the post-World War II
symbolic emperor system, the emperor was not allowed to make political
statements. (Article 3 and Article 4 of the Japanese Constitution:
http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=174)
However, as an exception to this rule, the current emperor emeritus announced his intention to abdicate during his reign, and the Prime Minister's Office was forced to follow suit and create a special law for abdication before his death. It is said that the Abe cabinet distrusted the IHA at that time, and the Prime Minister's Office sent the current Secretary Nishimura, a former Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police, to take charge.
It is said that the shock to the Prime
Minister's Office was great when Secretary Nishimura publicly expressed his
"concern over the matter" against the will of the Prime Minister's
Office without any prior arrangement.
Sence of Crisis in IF and IHA
The background of the rebellion by Secretary Nishimura, who had originally assumed the post at the behest of the Prime Minister's Office, is believed that there was a sense of crisis in the Imperial Family and the IHA over the Olympics.
If the Olympics are held in the midst of a
corona disaster, there will surely be casualties, and the interests of the
industry involved in the Olympics have been exposed. AERA.dot cites a person
who has been following the Imperial Family for a long time as saying, "If
this continues, the Olympics could become as disreputable as the Berlin
Olympics held by Germany in 1936. The Emperor, as honorary president of the
Tokyo Olympics, will be in a position to declare that the Olympics will be held
in Tokyo, and members of the Imperial Family will be spectators at the various
stadiums. The imperial family also needed to show that it had distanced
itself from the Olympics by sending a message. In other words, Secretary
Nishimura, who stood at a crossroads between showing loyalty to the Prime
Minister's Office and the Imperial Family, chose to support the Imperial
Family.
Another article states that the Emperor's
honorary presidency of the Olympics and Paralympics is an "official
event of the Emperor" and that there is no problem in expressing his
feelings.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/tarobando/20210628-00245200/
In other words, it is not an "act of
state," which is defined in the Constitution as requiring the advice and
approval of the Cabinet, and is ambiguous in that it excludes act of state and
purely private acts from the Emperor's conduct.
It is understood that the Emperor's will is
respected to a certain extent in ‘official events’, the IHA acts as an advisor,
and the Cabinet assumes final responsibility. Therefore, it is rather natural
under the current circumstances for the "honorary president" to
express his concern about the spread of the new coronavirus infection.
PM Suga’s Briefing being Trigger?
The Daily Shincho explains the background
of Nishimura's remarks as follows.
On June 22, three days before he made his remarks, His Majesty received an informal briefing from PM Suga on the theme of the Olympics, but he may have felt that the content of the briefing was insufficient.
He may have thought that Suga's explanation
was not enough to allay the his concerns about the spread of the disease. Mr.
Nishimura asked His Majesty, "Can I mention it? But since Nishimura's
comments came out two days after the internal press conference, it is normal to
understand that His Majesty entrusted his thoughts to Nishimura.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/15e1cba6be61a0ac5bd93b280758aa3b66373f28?page=2
Anyway, Secretary Nishimura's comments caused a big stir. On April 28, Prime Minister Suga inspected the airport quarantine at Haneda Airport and praised the measures taken to separate the flow of Olympic athletes and officials from that of ordinary passengers. The airport quarantine will also resolve the absence of a certification process for those in close contact with the infected people, which was criticized when the Ugandan team was accepted. It would appear that the "concern" is slowly having an effect.
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