During the "Message from His Majesty The Emperor" on his role as a symbol （August 8, 2018）, the Emperor of Japan stated that： "［...］ when I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the State with my whole being as I have done until now," and, after touching upon the repercussions for the people of Japan of his two surgeries as well as those that would accompany his funeral, expressed a strong desire to abdicate his position as Emperor.
In saying this, the Emperor indicated that, even while being referred to as the Emperor, he must consider： ① his existence as a human being with a "body natural," which will deteriorate and ultimately die； ② that the Emperor as a "symbol" is a "body politic" for which it is not sufficient to merely reign but for which he must fulfill a" role"； and ③ that the Emperor himself must consider what it means to actually serve as a "symbol."
If the Emperor is considered to have become a "symbol as a body politic" in a capacity removed from his corporeal self as a body natural, beyond those merely relating to symbolic indicators, this is equivalent to the dynamic of an actor playing a dramatic persona in the imaginative realm despite also being a living human being. In other words, we might characterize the Emperor as "performing" the "dramatic persona" of the "Japanese State" or the "unity of the Japanese people."
The question is how the relationship between his autonomous corporeal body on the performative side, and his symbolic body on the side made subject to performance is connected when the Emperor performs as the Japanese State or the unity of the Japanese people. This problem can be considered in parallel with that of what kind of performance allows us to perceive an actor as a dramatic persona, and precisely through a consideration of these problems in parallel, it should be possible to obtain major leads on how to consider the relationship between symbol and reality.
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