TOKYO _ For 30 years, he stood as a symbol of postwar Japan _ wrestling with the memory of military aggression and defeat, persevering through natural disasters and guiding the nation through evolving questions of identity.
On Tuesday afternoon, Emperor Akihito officially abdicated that role, stepping down from the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan, becoming the first emperor to do so in more than two centuries. His reign was scheduled to expire with the stroke of midnight.
"Today, I completed my role as emperor," Akihito said in his final remarks.
"Since ascending the throne 30 years ago, I have performed my duties as emperor with a deep sense of trust in and respect for the people. I consider myself most fortunate to have been able to do so."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, representing the Japanese people, expressed "deep gratitude" to the emperor for sharing in the sorrows and happiness of the people.
Akihito was enthroned in 1990 in a $94-million, 10-day affair that was attended by 2,500 guests from around the world and incited protests from people opposed to the imperial system.
Tuesday's ceremony, before about 300 guests in the Pine Room of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, took all of 10 minutes. It was broadcast live on national television across Japan.
In a bare-bones ceremony, the emperor, dressed in a tailcoat and silver tie, slowly walked to a dais with two chairs in the middle of a wooden floor accompanied by his wife, Empress Michiko. He stared solemnly ahead as wrapped packages containing imperial regalia were placed before him. Abe, along with the guests, bowed deeply.
Akihito's eldest son and emperor-to-be, Crown Prince Naruhito, stood to his right off the dais. After he finished reading his remarks from a scroll, Akihito slowly walked out of the room, pausing one final time to turn back and bow.
Outside the palace, where parts of the grounds were cordoned off for the ceremony, hundreds of Japanese gathered despite a light drizzle to pay their respects and take selfies to mark the final day of Akihito's reign, even though none of the proceedings were visible to the public.
"Thank you, thank you for working so hard for a long time," Ichiro Okazaki, holding a pole twice his height with a giant Japanese flag, yelled from beyond the blockade and toward the castle, where a lone policeman stood.
Okazaki, 69, said he'd come to show his gratitude to an emperor and empress who had cared about people.
"I appreciate and I'm happy that I was able to live with an emperor who was so wonderful," he said.
Akihito, 85, said age and increasingly poor health made it difficult for him to carry out his duties as emperor. Japanese lawmakers passed a one-time law to allow for his abdication. His father, Hirohito, had reigned until his death in 1989.
Akihito will cease to be emperor at midnight, with the reign immediately passing to Naruhito, whose official rites in taking the throne will take place Wednesday morning. More elaborate and public ceremonies are expected to follow in the fall.
Stripped of its once mighty political power following Japan's defeat in World War II, the Japanese imperial household figures little in the lives of average citizens except as fodder for curiosity and as ceremonial figures.
But in his 30-year reign, Akihito brought the monarchy closer to the people. He won Japanese hearts and established a moral authority during a period when the throne could have faded into obsolescence, said Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University's Tokyo campus and a scholar of modern Japan.
"He totally reinvented the role of the emperor," Kingston said. "He saw how important it was to make the monarchy relevant to contemporary society. Why do we have this anachronism in modern Japan? That question was on a lot of people's minds, but also the emperor's."
Akihito and Empress Michiko were subtle but stalwart champions of liberal, pacifist causes, advocating for the rights of the marginalized and for Japan to accept and atone for its aggressions in the first half of the 20th century.
Noriko Kawamura, a history professor at Washington State University and an author of a book on Emperor Hirohito, said perhaps the most direct U.S. equivalent to the emperor in modern Japan was the U.S flag.
"Best way to survive without controversy is to be like the American flag _ just wave," she said.
But Akihito used the throne to delicately counterbalance a shift toward right-wing nationalism in Japanese politics in recent years under Abe. Akihito used increasingly strong language to apologize for Japan's wartime belligerence, and promoted peace while Abe advocated for revising the constitution to allow for Japan to again have an active military. Currently, Japan's army is limited to defensive actions.
"We are all watching to see how the pendulum of patriotism and nationalism is swinging," Kawamura said.
Naruhito, whose reign will officially be known as the era of Reiwa, or "beautiful harmony," has echoed his father's comments on the importance of peace.
He has also repeatedly spoken of the importance of diversity, at a time when Japan is beginning to accept larger numbers of migrant workers in the face of a shrinking and rapidly aging population.
"He's not an unknown figure in Japanese society at all ... we've known them for a long time. There's a lot of overlap in their thinking," said Takako Kobori Hikotani, a professor of modern Japanese politics and foreign policy at Columbia University.
