What do the emperors do? Live a lavish life keeping others subjected to their own whims and fancies. But Emperor Akihito is surely different from other Emperors.?
On April 30, 2019, Emperor Akihito of Japan will abdicate and his son-the crown prince Naruhito will ascend the throne. But what will the emperor do after retirement? Well, he is a scientist and he doesn't wish to retire. According to Open Culture website, the emperor will continue to publish papers.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan reports that the emperor will do what he has been doing all his life. ¡°For many years, the Emperor has made a taxonomic study of gobies, small fish found in fresh, brackish and marine waters. As a member of the Ichthyological Society of Japan, He published 30 papers in the society¡¯s journal between 1963 and 1989. He was one of the contributors to The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago (1st edition in 1984), the first illustrated book of all the fishes in Japanese waters.¡±
Akihito became emperor in 1989 when he was 56. Japan still has an emperor through he doesn¡¯t have any political powers and only has a ceremonial role post the World War-II. That¡¯s why Akihito had a lot of time during emperorship which he utilised by becoming the?honorary member of the Linnean Society of London, Zoological Society of London, and Research Institute for Natural Science of Argentina, and a research associate at the Australian Museum.
Emperor Akihito remained active as a scientist despite emperorship and published a history of science article in Nature titled ¡°Linnaeus and taxonomy in Japan¡± in 2007.?
In 2016, Akihito appeared as the first author in a study published in Gene and his younger son Crown Prince Fumihito Akishino who studied fish taxonomy at St John¡¯s College Oxford and did a doctorate in ornithology became the second author. The prince now is a now the president of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology and the Japanese Association of Zoological Gardens and Aquariums.
Emperor Akihito with crown prince Naruhito, Reuters
Just in case you want to read sometimes published by the emperor, just read the?first page of one of Emperor Akihito¡¯s papers, ¡°Early Cultivators of Science in Japan¡± at Science in which he makes a case for the global sharing of knowledge.
¡°Through my own study of ichthyology,¡± Akihito writes, ¡°I have come to feel strongly the importance of international cooperation in conducting scientific studies. I recall with a sense of gratitude that behind each one of the papers I have published there has been the unsparing cooperation of people abroad.¡±