Hirohito Has Improved, Palace Says

Emperor Hirohito neared a third week in serious condition Saturday with his son and heir, Crown Prince Akihito, telling Japanese to resume normal activities and Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita making his first trip outside Tokyo since the monarch fell ill.

Palace spokesman Kenji Maeda told a news conference that the emperor showed signs of improvement and had not lost blood for more than two days--the longest period without a blood discharge since his health crisis began.

Bedridden Since September

Hirohito, 87, the world’s oldest and longest currently reigning monarch, is believed suffering from cancer and has been bedridden in Tokyo’s Imperial Palace since Sept. 19, when he began massive hemorrhaging.

The spokesman said Hirohito was given another transfusion Saturday afternoon, bringing to 12.9 pints the resupply of blood to the frail monarch over the past 20 days.

Prime Minister Takeshita paid an hourlong visit to the 54-year-old crown prince Saturday morning, briefing him for the first time on domestic and foreign affairs and receiving an update on the emperor’s condition.

Akihito assumed his father’s ceremonial duties Sept. 22, four days after Hirohito fell ill.

Akihito, however, has not been given the title of “acting emperor,” which Hirohito was awarded during the illness of Emperor Taisho, who died in 1926.

Takeshita told reporters after the meeting that the crown prince had urged the nation’s people to reconsider the mass cancellations of public and private events in the wake of the emperor’s illness.

“Excessive restraint on people’s activities would be inappropriate,” Takeshita said.

Meanwhile, a group of 319 lawyers issued a statement saying that calling off hundreds of events in deference to the emperor’s condition would effectively raise his status to head of state from the powerless ceremonial symbol to which he was reduced following Japan’s defeat in World War II.

The prime minister later left Tokyo for the first time since the emperor fell ill to attend a meeting of his Liberal Democratic Party at Kannami, south of the capital.