Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
{"uid":"1","hostPeerName":"https://www.nytimes.com","initialGeometry":"{\"windowCoords_t\":9,\"windowCoords_r\":1060,\"windowCoords_b\":815,\"windowCoords_l\":9,\"frameCoords_t\":90.20000457763672,\"frameCoords_r\":1019,\"frameCoords_b\":90.20000457763672,\"frameCoords_l\":0,\"styleZIndex\":\"auto\",\"allowedExpansion_t\":90.20000457763672,\"allowedExpansion_r\":0,\"allowedExpansion_b\":584.7999954223633,\"allowedExpansion_l\":0,\"xInView\":0,\"yInView\":0}","permissions":"{\"expandByOverlay\":false,\"expandByPush\":false,\"readCookie\":false,\"writeCookie\":false}","metadata":"{\"shared\":{\"sf_ver\":\"1-0-40\",\"ck_on\":1,\"flash_ver\":\"0\"}}","reportCreativeGeometry":true,"isDifferentSourceWindow":false,"goog_safeframe_hlt":{}}" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" width="0" height="0" data-is-safeframe="true" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" aria-label="Advertisement" tabindex="0" data-google-container-id="1" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; min-width: 100%;">
Supported by
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Japan’s New Royal Instagram Page Forgoes Flash for Formality
No memes or spontaneity to see here, people. Just the usual official pictures of Emperor Naruhito and his family.
Share full article
Read in app
Emperor Naruhito, center, with his family on the balcony of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo earlier this year.Credit...Pool photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno
By Kiuko Notoya and Mike Ives
Kiuko Notoya reported from Tokyo, and Mike Ives from Seoul.
April 2, 2024, 5:23 a.m. ET
Get it sent to your inbox.
Anyone expecting the Japanese royal family’s new Instagram account to generate memes or showcase a new side of the world’s oldest continuous monarchy should lower their expectations.
There is nothing flashy to see here, people. No behind-the-scenes levity or spontaneity. Just some royals politely posing for pictures in their usual, formal way.
The new Instagram page for Japan’s Imperial Household Agency — its first on any social media platform — posted its first image early Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, it had uploaded 19 more and collected nearly half a million followers.
The page mostly shows Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and sometimes their daughter, Princess Aiko, standing up, sitting down or bowing at formal events over the past three months. There they are at an exhibition of bonsai plants at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, or posing with visiting dignitaries from Kenya and Brunei, or presiding over the awarding of awards.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
The Japanese public hardly figures into the page, except in a brief video of a flag-waving crowd at a 64th birthday celebration for Emperor Naruhito, the 126th person to hold that title in a hereditary line that stretches back more than 15 centuries.
More on Japan Interest Rates Hike: Amid clues that the economy may be on a course for more sustained growth after years of stagnation, the country’s central bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2007. A Festival of Fire and Spirits: During Setsubun celebrations in Kyoto, demons and bad luck are banished as people prepare for the start of the new year. Where the Bad News Is the Good News: Despite a recession, a shrinking population and politics tainted by corruption, Japan remains remarkably stable and cohesive, with little sense of impending doom or signs of societal discord. Here is why. A Foreign-Born Beauty Queen: Karolina Shiino, a Ukraine-born model, won the Miss Japan title in January, a few months after she had been naturalized as a Japanese citizen. Then, her reign came to an unceremonious end over an affair with a married man.
In that sense, the page’s content isn’t much different from that of the imperial household’s website.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
Mike Ives is a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the world. More about Mike Ives
Share full article
Read in app
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT