| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The first research outcome has been to demonstrate that Japan developed a Constitutional Monarchy like Britain in the late 1920s, reflecting both the individuality of the successive Emperors, Meiji (Mutsuhito), Taisho (Yoshihito) and Showa (Hirohito), as well as the conditions of the age.
The second is that one of the important reasons for the collapse of Constitutional Monarchy in 1932 was Emperor Showa's erratic interference in politics.
The third outcome is that Saionji Kinmochi, the only Genro appointed by Emperor Showa, gave the most astute advice during the crises of the Showa era but that the Emperor did not follow it.
The fourth has been to show that the images of the Emperor and the Imperial Family changed drastically from 1921 to 1932. After WW I, the Imperial Household Agency and the government worked to develop images of Crown Prince Hirohito and Prince Chichibu as being in touch with commoners, healthy and deeply interested in science. Prince Chichibu had success in this regard but Crown Prince Hirohito on the whole failed to secure this image. From the Hamaguchi Cabinet onwards, he appeared primarily in a Field Marshall's uniform and, from the Manchurian Incident on, always riding on a white horse which cultivated a divine mystique.
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