Oct 22 (Japan Times) - Emperor Naruhito officially declared his enthronement to world representatives on Tuesday in a ceremony that was conducted amid relative peace and calm.
The last time the event was held, three decades ago, extremists fighting against the imperial system carried out multiple terror attacks.
About 2,000 guests from home and abroad attended Tuesday’s ceremony, and some 26,000 police officers were mobilized from across Japan — stepping up security checks and traffic controls around the Imperial Palace and other parts of central Tokyo. An anti-terrorist squad was also deployed to keep watch for threats such as drones in the sky.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been no reports of major incidents or obstruction. At least one rally against the enthronement ceremony was held inside a building near JR Shinbashi Station shortly after 1 p.m., when the ceremony was being held at the Imperial Palace.
When Emperor Naruhito’s father proclaimed his enthronement before about 2,200 guests from home and abroad on Nov. 12, 1990, tensions were higher, however.
From that morning, a spate of violence by radicals opposing the ceremony gripped Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, according to media reports at that time. Some mortars were fired toward the Imperial Palace, and others into Self-Defense Forces bases, and fires sparked by timed incendiary devices destroyed parts of shrines. A separate blaze led to the suspension of train services on the Yamanote and Keihin Tohoku lines, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.
According to a National Police Agency report filed at the time, there were 40 terror attacks in six prefectures, including 34 in Tokyo that day alone, despite the largest deployment of security forces, mostly around the imperial properties.
Thousands of protesters joined demonstrations and rallies across Tokyo to call for “crushing the enthronement ritual,†according to the media reports.
