"The big difference is in the understanding of the emperor system," he said.

Or if the Allies had said they would allow the emperor system to continue, Japan would instantly have raised its hands.

Some groups opposed to the emperor system staged small protests.

It shows that Japan intends to retain parts of the emperor system as it always has.

The Japanese, he writes, were deliberately locked up in "the playground of postwar democracy and a merely symbolic emperor system."

The most compelling explanation was that women, so often at a social disadvantage in Japan, feel more sharply the effects of a patriarchal emperor system.

It was written by a 73-year-old mechanic: "The emperor system led to military rule and caused the worst tragedy in Japanese history.

That is particularly remarkable when one considers how close Japan came to losing the emperor system entirely.

No matter what you think the emperor system will not be abolished by strong statements.'

The Japanese emperor system is not a fascist institution; it is based on an ethnic and cultural foundation.