關於日本皇室 你應該知道的5件事
Emperor Akihito of Japan indicated in a rare public address on Monday that he wants to abdicate the throne, which would make him the first Japanese monarch in 200 years to step down. Here are five essential facts about one of the world’s oldest and most cloistered royal families.
週一，日本明仁天皇在一次罕見的公開講話中暗示自己有意退位，這將使他成爲該國200年來首個在世退位的君主。日本皇室是世界上最古老也最低調的皇族之一，以下是關於它的五個基本事實。
A Lengthy Dynasty
古老的君主制度
The imperial house of Japan is the oldest continuous monarchy in the world.
日本天皇制是世界上傳承未間斷的最古老君主制度。
Akihito is the 125th emperor in a line that extends back to the country’s founding in 600 B.C. by the Emperor Jimmu, who legend holds was descended from the sun goddess. Though evidence of the first 25 emperors is shrouded in myth, there is ample historical proof of an unbroken hereditary line from A.D. 500 to today.
明仁是日本的第125任天皇，往前一直可以追溯到於公元前600年創建日本的神武天皇，傳說他是太陽女神的後裔。儘管前25位天皇存在的證據籠罩着神話色彩，但有充分的歷史證據能夠證明，從公元后500年至今，日本的皇位世代相傳，從未間斷。
After modern Japanese emperors die, their names are changed to reflect the era in which they ruled. Akihito will be renamed Heisei (“peace everywhere”) for the name of his era, which began with his coronation in 1989. His father, the wartime emperor Hirohito, is posthumously known as Showa, or “radiant Japan.”
現代日本天皇去世後，人們會改用他們在位時的年號來稱呼他們。明仁會被改稱爲“平成”，意爲“內平外成”，他於1989年即位後便開始使用這個年號。他父親，也就是戰時的天皇裕仁，去世後被改稱爲昭和，意爲“百姓昭明，協和萬邦”。
Gods and Men
神與人的理念
The emperor is the head of state and the highest authority of the Shinto religion.
天皇是國家元首，也是神道教的最高領袖。
Japan is the only modern nation to still refer to the head of its royal family as emperor. In Japanese the emperor is called tenno, or “heavenly sovereign,” a nod to the idea that the imperial family is descended from gods. The monarchy historically maintained a divine right to rule, but it was only in recent centuries that cults around the emperor began to deify rulers as demigods.
日本是唯一一個仍對皇室首腦以“皇”相稱的國家。日語“天皇”一詞符合日本皇室是神的後裔這一理念。日本皇室在歷史上一直堅稱君權神授，但直到最近幾個世紀，天皇的狂熱信徒才把統治者奉爲半人半神式的存在。
Soon after the end of World War II, as part of Japan’s surrender, Hirohito renounced what he called the “the false conception that the emperor is divine.” Under Japan’s 1947 postwar Constitution, the emperor became “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people,” a figurehead with no political authority.
二戰結束後不久，作爲日本投降的一部分，裕仁宣稱拋棄“天皇是現世神這一虛構觀念”。根據日本於1947年實施的戰後憲法，天皇成爲了“日本國及日本國民團結之象徵”，一個沒有政治權力的名義上的領袖。
Amateur Scientists
業餘科學家
At the beginning of each new year since 1869, just after Emperor Meiji restored the authority of the emperor and set Japan on a course of modernization and industrialization, the emperor has hosted a series of scientific lectures.
自從1869年以來——當時，明治天皇剛剛恢復皇的權威，帶領日本走上現代化和工業化道路——每年年初，天皇都要主持一系列科學講座。
Hirohito and his elder son, Akihito, shared an interest in marine biology. Hirohito wrote several scientific papers on hydrozoa, a class of aquatic animals related to jellyfish, and Akihito is considered an expert on goby fish. Akihito has written 38 scientific articles on the fish, and a newly discovered species of the fish was named for him.
裕仁及其長子明仁都對海洋生物學很感興趣。裕仁寫過幾篇關於水母類水生動物水螅蟲的論文；明仁則被視爲蝦虎魚研究領域的權威。明仁以蝦虎魚爲題寫過38篇科學論文，新近被發現的一個蝦虎魚品種就是以他的名字命名的。
Women in Power
掌權的女性
Historically, women could ascend to the throne and rule in their own right, but only eight of Japan’s emperors have been women.
在歷史上，女性也可以登臨皇位，有資格統治天下，但日本只出過八位女天皇。
Until the 20th century, Japanese emperors usually had a chief wife and several concubines, all of whom were members of noble families. Akihito was the first emperor permitted to marry a commoner, and he did, marrying Michiko Shoda in 1956 after meeting her on a tennis court, launching a tennis boom in Japan.
直到20世紀，日本天皇通常有一位皇后和若干嬪妃，她們全都出身於貴族家庭。明仁是第一位獲准與平民結婚的天皇，他也的確這樣做了，在1956年迎娶正田美智子(Michiko Shoda)。兩人此前是在網球場上相識的，因此還在日本掀起了網球熱潮。
Akihito’s elder son, Crown Prince Naruhito, also married a commoner, Masako Owada, a former diplomat. Princess Masako was given a diagnosis of a clinical psychiatric condition in 2006, believed to have been triggered by the pressures of delivering a male heir.
明仁的長子，也就是皇太子德仁迎娶的小和田雅子(Masako Owada)同樣是一位平民，曾經當過外交官。2006年，皇太子妃雅子被診斷出患有精神疾病，其病症據信是由生育男性繼承人的壓力引發的。
Under the 1947 Constitution, only a male heir can inherit the throne, though a change in the law was briefly considered in 2005 to allow a woman to become emperor. When Princess Masako gave birth to a daugther, plans to amend the Constitution were dropped.
根據1947年生效的戰後憲法，只有男性繼承人才能繼承皇位，但在2005年曾一度考慮通過修憲讓女性獲得繼承皇位的權利。皇太子妃雅子生下一個女兒後，修憲的計劃被擱置了。
The Chrysanthemum Throne
菊花寶座
Akihito and his family live in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, a parklike compound in Japan’s capital that is considered one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the world.
明仁及其家人生活在東京皇居里，那是一片位於日本首都的公園式建築羣，被認爲是全球最昂貴的不動產之一。
The palace includes residences for the imperial family, the offices of the Imperial Household Agency and museums. The monarchy is often referred to metaphorically as the Chrysanthemum Throne, but there is an actual chrysanthemum throne, an ornate chair called takamikura on which the emperor sits during his enthronement ceremony.
皇居由皇室居所、宮內廳(Imperial Household Agency)辦公室以及博物館組成。日本的君主政體通常被喻爲菊花王朝，但在皇居里真的有菊花寶座，那是一個名叫“高御座”的華麗寶座，天皇舉行登基大典時就坐在上邊。
