Anyone expecting the Japanese royal family’s new Instagram account to generate memes or show a new side of the world’s oldest continuing monarchy should lower their expectations.
There’s nothing remarkable to see here, folks. No levity or spontaneity behind the scenes. Just a few members of the royal family politely posing for photos in their usual formal manner.
Japan’s Imperial Household Agency’s new Instagram page — the first on any social media platform — posted its first image early Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, it had uploaded 19 more and amassed nearly half a million followers.
The page mainly shows Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and sometimes their daughter, Princess Aiko, standing, sitting or bowing during formal events over the past three months. There they are at an exhibition of bonsai plants at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, or posing with visiting dignitaries from Kenya and Brunei, or presiding over awards ceremonies.
The Japanese public barely appears on the page, except in a short video of a flag-waving crowd at a celebration of the 64th birthday of Emperor Naruhito, the 126th person to hold that title in a hereditary line spanning more than 15 centuries goes back.
In this sense, the content of the page is not much different from that of the Imperial Household website.
This is not the first time that members of Japan’s 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 published photos of Empress Michiko, the wife of the previous emperor, in her kitchen.
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 Crown Prince Akishino, who is first in line for the throne. (Incidentally, his daughter Mako Komuro, formerly Princess Mako, renounced her royal inheritance in 2021 to marry Kei Komuro, a commoner.)
Other people in Japan praised the page, saying it made the royal family look dignified.
“When I look at the smiling faces of their majesties the Emperor and Empress and Princess Aiko and their beautiful postures, I feel my back straighten,” Mika Ahn, a television personality, said on Tuesday during a talk show on the Nippon TV channel. .
A few visitors to the Kokyo Gaien National Garden, near the Imperial Palace, agreed to talk to a reporter on Tuesday about the royal family’s new presence on social media.
Mika Hirano, 38, who works part-time at a welfare facility, said she had never heard of the Instagram page. She predicted that it wouldn’t be particularly interesting because the royal family has never been particularly accessible to the Japanese public.
The page might help the family reach a younger generation, Ms. Hirano added, “but if they are too informal or casual, they will be criticized for lacking dignity.”
Yuko Tanaka, 53, and Noriko Yamada, 51, sat on a nearby bench and looked at cherry blossoms.
Ms Tanaka, a banker, said she heard about the Instagram page on the news. Ms. Yamada, a doctor, said she heard about it from Ms. Tanaka.
Ms Tanaka said that because of the family’s royal status, and also because Princess Aiko is not heir to Japan’s Chrysanthemum Throne, it would not be appropriate for the public to see too much of the members’ private lives.
“I think it’s good that they turned off the comments,” Ms. Yamada added. “Because there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions.”