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Encyclopedia :: encyclopedia : Emperor of Japan (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31) |
 | | The role of the Emperor of Japan has alternated between that of a supreme-rank cleric with largely symbolic powers and that of an actual imperial ruler from the dawn of history until the mid-twentieth century. |
| | Although the emperor performs many of the roles of a head of state, there has been a persistent controversy within Japan as to whether the emperor is in fact a true monarch in a political sense or merely a hereditary pretender, as a political servant of a constitutional parliamentary republic. |
| | The acceptable imperial wives, brides for an emperor and for a crown prince, were even legislated into the Meiji-era imperial house laws, which stipulated that daughters of Sekke (the five main branches of the higher Fujiwara) and daughters of the imperial clan itself were primarily acceptable brides. |
| www.hallencyclopedia.com /Emperor_of_Japan (4188 words) |
