Media representation of an imagined imperial community: Digital media reports in Japan at the dawn of the Reiwa era and Emperor Naruhito’s ascension to the throne

Drawing on media portrayals of the Japanese imperial family since the end of World War II, this study explores an imagined imperial community represented through Japanese digital media reports culminating at the dawn of Reiwa and Emperor Naruhito’s coronation in 2019. The study examines if the media representation of the Reiwa imagined imperial community reflects the preferred narrative of the Abe administration (2012–2020). The study’s main conceptual suppositions are Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities and Kurihara Akira’s performance model of the emperor system. Findings from a content analysis of digital media reports between 1 April 2019 and 4 May 2019 suggest that a) the Reiwa imagined imperial community was chiefly represented by media reports with nationalistic narratives in line with the Abe administration’s political philosophy, hinting at restoring a prewar imagined imperial community; and b) digital media organizations practiced sontaku – a media practice of willing submission to the government – by favoring the Abe administration’s narrative of the Reiwa imagined imperial community. Hence, the current study identified that the Reiwa imagined imperial community, which appeared in the digital media, was not just a high-profile historical event. Rather, the Reiwa imagined imperial community was a grand political performance scripted by the Abe administration with the media as the intermediary.