Question

How did people in Japan see their emperor?

Answer 1

They respect the Emperor more than they should. I mean it's not bad to respect someone, but it's weird to respect someone just because of their blood heritage. Unlike the royalty in most other Western countries like say the UK, it's a bit of taboo to speak badly about the Emperor and the royalty family. So I feel that the respect is a bit superficial and forced. But it's not like people spend every day worshiping the Emperor, most people don't really care that much in their day to day lives. It's not usually something that people bring up in daily conversations. But if the Emperor gets sick or something, then especially the rightists will make a big deal of it to “mourn” for the Emperor and set the “appropriate” mood, which is to be more depressing and not be too happy. So in that sense, those kind of things might impact their lives. Also, people tend to listen to what the Emperor has to say about things, even though he's not allowed to have political opinions, so what he says tend to be more general.