Emperor Akihito speaks at ordinary diet session ceremony

January 28, 2019

Tokyo--Japan's Emperor Akihito gave a speech at the opening ceremony for the ordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament, on Monday.

The ceremony for the 198th Diet session was the last of its kind for Emperor Akihito to deliver a speech before his planned abdication on April 30.

"I ardently hope that the Diet will fulfill its mission and public trust as the highest organ of state power when it addresses problems in and outside" Japan, he said.

A cabinet member of the government of now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan once suggested that the Emperor made similar remarks at every opening ceremony of Diet sessions.

With the constitution stipulating that the Emperor does not have any power over state politics, the Imperial Household Agency has been reluctant to review customs for the speech. Jiji Press