Photo/Illutration Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako talk with a family member of someone who died in the Battle of Okinawa, after laying flowers and offering prayers at the national cemetery for the war dead in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, on Oct. 22. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

Emperor Naruhito entered his fifth year of being on the throne on May 1 with almost all his public duties returning to in-person appearances as the COVID-19 pandemic winds down.

He is exploring with his aides how to resume full-scale public duties.

On April 11, Naruhito and Empress Masako saw off Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Queen Rania, and Crown Prince Hussein at a carriage porch at the Imperial Palace.

They then approached reporters, who were there covering the meeting between the two countries’ royals.

Naruhito talked to reporters about the Imperial Stock Farm (Goryo Bokujo) in Tochigi Prefecture, where he and his family had stayed during their vacation until the previous day.

“There was a calf there just born,” he said. “The scenery was beautiful and expansive.”

He then approached Jordanian reporters and shook their hands.

The emperor has been seen approaching and talking to reporters like this recently as the world is returning to normality after the pandemic.

Such behavior shows how the emperor wants to communicate with people, his aide said, adding that Naruhito “is always aware of the existence of the public,” whom the media serves.

The pandemic struck about one year after Naruhito took the throne, making it difficult for the emperor to attend events or ceremonies.

He began engaging in public duties online in August 2020.

As people were trying to discern how to “live with the coronavirus,” the emperor resumed visiting regional areas last year.

In October, he visited Okinawa Prefecture.

He met bereaved family members of victims of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa  and showed them warmth by offering words such as, “Please take care of your health.”

In September, Naruhito made his first foreign visit since his enthronement by attending the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in Britain with Masako.

A garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Garden will be held on May 11 for the first time in the Reiwa Era, which started in May 2019.

On how he will perform his duties as the emperor in the Reiwa Era, Naruhito has said it is important to think about duties that match the changing times and society and act accordingly.

To do so, he wants “to cherish opportunities to directly communicate with many people and listen to them,” Naruhito said.

However, his public duties haven’t fully returned to how they were before the pandemic.

For example, it’s still difficult for him to visit care homes for the elderly, where residents are at a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, or to attend receptions involving eating and drinking.

When he visits places, Naruhito still refrains from approaching and talking to crowds.

How he should conduct himself regarding his public duties is being decided on a case-by-case basis.

“I believe it is time for (Naruhito) to resume (widely communicating with the public) to gain a deeper understanding of the imperial family from the public and to show people the reason for his existence as the symbolic emperor, while putting in place measures to prevent infections,” said Hideya Kawanishi, an associate professor of modern Japanese history at Nagoya University, who researches Japan’s symbolic emperor system.

A senior official for the Imperial Household Agency said, “The sum of what the emperor and empress will do in accordance with the situation at hand will form the Reiwa Era.”

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