Akihito is abdicating

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

He reigned from 1989 to 2016.

[RogueBeaver]

He may abdicate at some point in the future, more accurately.

[Antonio the Sixth]

[Vega]

Not completely accurate. He won't be abdicating for a "few years" according to most reports.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

If he abdicates does he get renamed per tradition or does that only happen after his death?

[Zioneer]

Whenever he abdicates, it'll be the end of an era. Literally so due to the imperial era naming conventions, and also the end of an era in that Japan will no longer have an emperor that remembers WW2.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The Emperor's a class act. He's rumored to be quite left-leaning or at least pacifist-leaning in private (good!) but he's done a good job of staying out of politics (good! good!). And anyone who's survived to the age of eighty-two, apparently sane and in good spirits, under the aegis of the reprehensible Imperial Household Agency (bad!), has got to have something going for him.

[Zioneer]

The Emperor's a class act. He's rumored to be quite left-leaning or at least pacifist-leaning in private (good!) but he's done a good job of staying out of politics (good! good!). And anyone who's survived to the age of eighty-two, apparently sane and in good spirits, under the aegis of the reprehensible Imperial Household Agency (bad!), has got to have something going for him.

How bad is the Imperial Household Agency? I'm not familiar with them.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The Emperor's a class act. He's rumored to be quite left-leaning or at least pacifist-leaning in private (good!) but he's done a good job of staying out of politics (good! good!). And anyone who's survived to the age of eighty-two, apparently sane and in good spirits, under the aegis of the reprehensible Imperial Household Agency (bad!), has got to have something going for him.

How bad is the Imperial Household Agency? I'm not familiar with them.

They're a creepy, hyperconservative cabal that micromanages every aspect of the Imperial Family's lives to no clear end. A practical example is their taking an already-horrible law dictating that princesses are reduced to commoner status when they marry and implementing it in such a way that such former princesses can almost never see their family again, because the Imperial Family are allowed so little outside contact and the former princesses are now 'outsiders' since they no longer hold the title 'princess'. There are many other examples.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Does his decision have anything to do with Abe's constitutional revision project, or is it purely personal?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Does his decision have anything to do with Abe's constitutional revision project, or is it purely personal?

I have my suspicions, but they may be baseless.

[Simfan34]

Is it true that members of the Imperial Family cannot so much as make a phone call without receiving permission from the Kunaicho first?

It's said they were the ones who hounded first Empress Michiko and then Crown Princess Masako into severe depression. It would be great if abdication frees the Emperor and Empress from their grasp, but I doubt it. Damn MacArthur.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Is it true that members of the Imperial Family cannot so much as make a phone call without receiving permission from the Kunaicho first?

I believe so, yeah.

[Vega]

Speak of the devil - the Household Authority has denied Akihito's wish to abdication.

[jaichind]

If he abdicates does he get renamed per tradition or does that only happen after his death?

You are referring to the concept of a Posthumous name or 諡 for an Emperor.  This is a Chinese tradition that the Japanese have adopted centuries ago.  If they follow it to the letter of the Chinese tradition, which I am pretty sure they will, they will only do this after he passes away.

[Vega]

Akihito gave a speech to the nation, only the second one he's given (the other being after Fukushima), which laid out circumstances to why he is considering abdicated, without saying he will.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Speak of the devil - the Household Authority has denied Akihito's wish to abdication.

Could the Diet just get rid of the Household Agency if it wanted to, or at least vastly curtail it's power? It really just sounds needlessly cruel and outdated, not to mention a huge waste of money.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Speak of the devil - the Household Authority has denied Akihito's wish to abdication.

Could the Diet just get rid of the Household Agency if it wanted to, or at least vastly curtail it's power? It really just sounds needlessly cruel and outdated, not to mention a huge waste of money.

The Diet could if it wanted to, yes.

[Vega]

Speak of the devil - the Household Authority has denied Akihito's wish to abdication.

Could the Diet just get rid of the Household Agency if it wanted to, or at least vastly curtail it's power? It really just sounds needlessly cruel and outdated, not to mention a huge waste of money.

The Diet could if it wanted to, yes.

I'm shocked it hasn't come up. It would be supported by most of the public and is a no brainier.