{"id":16165,"date":"2024-04-02T12:39:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T12:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/japans-new-royal-instagram-page-forgoes-flash-for-formality\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T12:39:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T12:39:39","slug":"japans-new-royal-instagram-page-forgoes-flash-for-formality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/japans-new-royal-instagram-page-forgoes-flash-for-formality\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s New Royal Instagram Page Forgoes Flash for Formality"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02xp-japanroyals-mjfv\/02xp-japanroyals-mjfv-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Japan\u2019s New Royal Instagram Page Forgoes Flash for Formality\" title=\"Japan\u2019s New Royal Instagram Page Forgoes Flash for Formality\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Anyone expecting the Japanese royal family\u2019s new Instagram account to generate memes or showcase a new side of the world\u2019s oldest continuous monarchy should lower their expectations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There is nothing flashy to see here, people. No behind-the-scenes levity or spontaneity. Just some royals politely posing for pictures in their usual, formal way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kunaicho_jp\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">new Instagram page<\/a> for Japan\u2019s Imperial Household Agency \u2014 its first on any social media platform \u2014 posted its first image early Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, it had uploaded 19 more and collected nearly half a million followers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The page mostly shows <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/21\/world\/asia\/japan-emperor-naruhito-royal-family.html\" title=\"\">Emperor Naruhito<\/a>, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/29\/world\/asia\/japan-abdication-princess-masako.html\" title=\"\">Empress Masako<\/a> and sometimes their daughter, Princess Aiko, standing up, sitting down or bowing at formal events over the past three months. There they are at <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C5LbiOZSg3A\/?img_index=1\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">an exhibition of bonsai plants<\/a> at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, or posing with visiting dignitaries from Kenya and Brunei, or presiding over the awarding of awards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Japanese public hardly figures into the page, except in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C5LfWsUyjRv\/?img_index=1\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a brief video<\/a> of a flag-waving crowd at a 64th birthday celebration for Emperor Naruhito, the 126th person to hold that title in a hereditary line that stretches back more than 15 centuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In that sense, the page\u2019s content isn\u2019t much different from that of the imperial household\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This is not the first time that members of Japan\u2019s royal family, which tightly controls its image, have made a concerted effort to connect with the public through a popular medium. In one example from the 1990s, a newspaper <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/photobank.mainichi.co.jp\/kiji_detail.php?id=P20090319dd1dd2phj186000\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">published photos of Empress Michiko<\/a>, the previous emperor\u2019s wife, in her kitchen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On social media this week, some critics said the royal family should never have taken to Instagram because the platform was beneath them, or that their feed should have featured <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/11\/30\/world\/asia\/japan-princess-mako-wedding.html\" title=\"\">Crown Prince Akishino<\/a>, who is first in line to the throne. (Incidentally, his daughter <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/world\/asia\/japan-royal-wedding-princess-mako.html\" title=\"\">Mako Komuro<\/a>, formerly Princess Mako, renounced her royal heritage in 2021 in order to marry <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/07\/20\/world\/asia\/princess-mako-fiance-fordham.html\" title=\"\">Kei Komuro<\/a>, a commoner.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other people in Japan praised the page, saying that it made the royal family look dignified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen I look at the smiling faces of their majesties the Emperor and Empress and Princess Aiko and their beautiful demeanor, I can feel my back straighten,\u201d Mika Ahn, a television personality, said on Tuesday during a talk show on the channel Nippon TV.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A few visitors to the Kokyo Gaien National Garden, near the Imperial Palace, agreed to talk on Tuesday to a reporter about the royal family\u2019s new social media presence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mika Hirano, 38, who works part-time at a welfare facility, said that she hadn\u2019t heard about the Instagram page. She predicted that it would not be particularly interesting because the royal family has never been especially accessible to the Japanese public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The page could perhaps help the family reach a younger generation, Ms. Hirano added, \u201cbut if they are too informal or casual, they will be criticized for lacking dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yuko Tanaka, 53, and Noriko Yamada, 51, were sitting on a nearby bench, looking at cherry blossoms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tanaka, a banker, said she had heard about the Instagram page on the news. Ms. Yamada, a doctor, said she had heard about it from Ms. Tanaka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Tanaka said that, because of the family\u2019s royal status, and also because Princess Aiko is not an heir to Japan\u2019s Chrysanthemum Throne, it would not be appropriate for the public to see too much of its members\u2019 private lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think it\u2019s good that they\u2019ve turned the comments off,\u201d Ms. Yamada added. \u201cBecause there are a lot of people with many opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone expecting the Japanese royal family\u2019s new Instagram account to generate memes or showcase a new side of the world\u2019s oldest continuous monarchy should lower their expectations. There is nothing flashy to see here, people. No behind-the-scenes levity or spontaneity. Just some royals politely posing for pictures in their usual, formal way. The new Instagram [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/02\/multimedia\/02xp-japanroyals-mjfv\/02xp-japanroyals-mjfv-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21784,21783,21720,9208,2412,9785,2923],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16167,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16165\/revisions\/16167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}