I’d really like to know whether or not the Emperor is still a god. Most contemporary sources are very fuzzy on the question, and it’s the sort of thing one would like to be quite clear on: either he’s divine, or he’s not. He certainly was in the old days, and they made a big deal about it during World War II, which is quite possibly why they don’t any more. He’s still the basis of the calendar. On the other hand, you don’t really see him venerated much, and the current Japanese constitution, adopted after the War, calls the Emperor the “symbol” of the country and the people, nothing more. But can you ever really stop being a god? He’s still the son of his father, and he’s the son of his father, and you don’t have to go back many generations to find someone with a shrine devoted to him. (And what does it mean, exactly, for a person to be a “symbol?” Isn’t that how we’re told to think of most gods today, too?)
Jason isn’t sure whether or not Akihito, the present Emperor, is divine (or at least semi-divine; surely the sun god’s blood has been diluted in the millennium and a half since the current imperial line was founded—the incredible continuity of the family, at least, is historical fact), and neither is Chris. I never really had a good context in which to ask a native. I think the best answer might be something along the lines of “Yes, our head of state is divine, but don’t tell the rest of the world; they might be jealous.”