Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Japan: An Enigmatic Still Life
Impassive as ever, Hirohito prefers jellyfish to politics
Dressed in battered Panama hat, short-sleeved shirt, Bermuda shorts and ancient tennis shoes, he seems most in his element while pottering around the seashore inspecting biological specimens. His evenings are generally spent at home with his wife watching soap operas and sumo wrestling on TV. In conversation, he rarely ventures anything more voluble than "Ah so desu ka [Is that so]?" Such are the salient features of the still, shy life of Emperor Hirohito, born as the 124th Imperial Son of Heaven in an unbroken line...
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