Akihito

Born in 1933 as Emperor Hirohito's first son, Akihito spent the war years evacuated to Nikkō, returning to a Japan remade by surrender. His 1959 marriage to Michiko Shōda, a commoner, broke centuries of precedent and drew 15 million television viewers. He ascended in January 1989 after his father's death and spent three decades trying to narrow the distance between throne and populace, visiting all forty-seven prefectures and Japan's remotest islands. On 30 April 2019, citing age and health, he abdicated — the first living emperor to leave the throne since 1817 — and took the title Emperor Eme…