Japan’s Emperor hospitalized with persistent fever, bronchitis
JAPAN: Japan’s 77-year-old emperor was hospitalized on Sunday,
several days after coming down with a fever, a spokesperson with the
Imperial Household Agency said.
Emperor Akihito, a ceremonial but revered figure in the Japan, was
suffering from a worsening case of bronchitis and the fever he
contracted Thursday, according to the spokesperson, who declined to be
identified due to the agency’s media protocol.
“He appears to be fatigued and has lost some resistance to fight
against sickness,” the spokesperson said. “To be on the safe side, he
was hospitalized (Sunday night) at University of Tokyo Hospital.”
It is the emperor’s second time in a hospital this year, after
getting medical treatment in February for extensive tests of his
coronary arteries.
Japan’s Cabinet on Sunday approved a measure to temporarily elevate
Crown Prince Naruhito to the role of emperor and give him power over all
the responsibilities that position entails, according to a person at the
Cabinet office, who also was not named per policy.
Born in Tokyo in December 1933 into a family that eventually
consisted of seven children, Akihito became crown prince in 1952 the
same year he enrolled at Gakushuin University, according to his official
biography. Seven years later, he married then-crown princess, and now
Empress Michiko, and together they raised three children.
On January 7, 1989, following the death of his father Hirohito,
Akihito became emperor. The position, per Japan’s constitution, is
defined as “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people.”
That said, the office’s involvement in day-to-day government affairs
tends to be minimal. Yet Emperor Akihito broke from precedent following
Japan’s epic 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami earlier
this year, when he gave a historic, televised speech. In it, he
encouraged citizens to put forth their “best effort to save all
suffering people” and he applauded his countrymen’s handling of the
crisis.
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