The emperor of Japan has fulfilled a number of roles and functions in terms of position in the government and as ceremonial head of the state. The Japanese derived from the Chinese the concept of an all-powerful monarchy and tried early in their history to transform their native, semisacred leader into a secular ruler of the Chinese type. Ever since that time the Japanese emperor has theoretically had the dual nature and functions of a religious leader of the native Shinto cults and the secular monarch of a Chinese-type state. In practice, though, he has rarely operated in the second capacity, and by the seventh century the emperor was already largely a symbol of authority rather than a wielder of personal power (Reischauer, 1988, pp. 44-45).
In the Meiji constitution in the nineteenth century, the emperor's role was sovereign and the locus of the state's legitimacy. After World War II, the new constitution redefined the political role of the emperor to a great degree. A precursor of this change can be seen in 1946 when MacArthur renounced the divinity of the emperor. Emperor Hirohito then stated that relations between the ruler and his people could not be based on the false idea that the emperor is divine or that the Japanese were superior to other races. In the new constitution, the emperor was "humanized" in the working of the document, and the rule is described as the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people. The constitution says that the emperor derives his position from the will of the people and that sovereign power rests with the people. In the 1889 constitution, the authority of the emperor as sovereign was broad and undefined. Under the postwar system, the functions of the emperor are narrow, specific, and largely ceremonial. Those functions are confined to such activities as convening the Diet bestowing decorations on deserving citizens and receiving foreign ambassadors. Otherwise, he does not pos...