Akihito assumed the throne when Hirohito died Jan. 7, 1989. But his enthronement was not completed until November of the next year, when he partook in an ancient ritual in which he is said to commune with the sun goddess. 660 B.C. The ceremony, steeped in Shinto, Japan's indigenous religion, has been a part of Japanese enthronement traditions for more than 1,000 years. But Akihito's communion was highly controversial because Hirohito renounced his divine status after the war. Akihito was the first emperor to assume the throne under Japan's postwar constitution, which defines the emperor as a ceremonial symbol of the nation and not a living god.
Lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of the rite are pending in Japanese courts.
In statements prepared and approved by the government, the emperor has been careful to express his regrets over the war to Japan's former enemies. But pockets of anger remain. Hundreds of former POWs booed him when he visited London last year. Concerns over a similar display have kept Akihito from visiting South Korea, which Japan ruled as a colony from 1910 to 1945 and where animosity toward the Japanese remains especially strong. Changing that might soon become the biggest test of Akihito's ability to get beyond the past.