Japan's Emperor Akihito (centre) and Empress Michiko look out at overturned ships and the damaged fishing port in Otsu town in Kitaibaraki, about 70km south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on April 22, 2011.
TOKYO: Japanese Emperor Akihito has, for decades, been rewriting the rules to an antiquated imperial institution.
He is the first monarch in a long bloodline extending 2,500 years to marry a commoner – Empress Michiko is daughter to a flour-miller – whom he met on a tennis court.
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