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State Religion? Monarchy? Where?
'''Please note:''' I am not disputing the greater Tōkyō area's status as the largest metropolitan agglomeration in the world. I'm merely saying that it would be nice to be a little more accurate than the current article's claim that Tōkyō's the largest '''city'''. We'd have to clarify what we mean by "city."
'''Please note:''' I am not disputing the greater Tōkyō area's status as the largest metropolitan agglomeration in the world. I'm merely saying that it would be nice to be a little more accurate than the current article's claim that Tōkyō's the largest '''city'''. We'd have to clarify what we mean by "city."
== State Religion? Monarchy? Where? ==
The article claims that there is a State religion (Shinto), but I cannot find any substantiation for this claim. Can anybody back up this claim?
[http://web-japan.org/factsheet/pdf/CONSTITU.pdf The Japanese Constitution] provides for no state religion.
Also, hammering on "constitutional monarchy" seems inappropriate. If you read the Japanese constitution, the Diet, not the Emperor, has supreme authority. This is borne out in the MOFA-sponsored [http://web-japan.org/factsheet/pdf/GOVSTRUC.pdf fact sheet on government]. The Emperor acts '''only''' in purely cerimonial role under the direction of the Diet (Constitution, Chapter 1). So, while the CIA World Factbook calls Japan a constitutional monarchy, the Japanese Constitution grants the Emperor '''no authority''' beyond the symbolic, and that wholely under the direction of the Diet.
Thus, how can we legitimately call Japan a "monarchy" if the monarch has zero power? I'd rather call it a parlimentary government, which is where the powers lie. If there is an insistance on including "monarch" in the description, it could be described as a "parilmentary government with cerimonial monarch."
'''Sources:''' [http://web-japan.org/index.html Web Japan], a site sponsored by the [http://www.mofa.go.jp/ Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs] (MOFA).