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Japan’s Royal Family Makes Instagram Debut

Japan's Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, poses for the media at the Japanese Red Cross Society as she begins to work on April 1, 2024. (AFP)
Japan's Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, poses for the media at the Japanese Red Cross Society as she begins to work on April 1, 2024. (AFP)
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Japan’s Royal Family Makes Instagram Debut

Japan's Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, poses for the media at the Japanese Red Cross Society as she begins to work on April 1, 2024. (AFP)
Japan's Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, poses for the media at the Japanese Red Cross Society as she begins to work on April 1, 2024. (AFP)

Japan's royal family is now on Instagram -- but don't expect any candid selfies from its official account, which went live Monday in a cautious social media debut for the ancient monarchy.

The first 19 posts are formally staged photos and videos of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako carrying out royal duties at recent public appearances.

Nonetheless, more than 160,000 users have followed the Imperial Household Agency (IHA) account, which was announced a week ago but set to private until Monday.

The Japanese monarchy has mythological origins stretching back more than two millennia, and any public criticism of the emperor remains taboo in the country.

By joining social media, the institution hopes to spark interest among younger generations about what the imperial family does, an IHA spokesperson confirmed to AFP.

But, perhaps predictably, the posts under the Instagram handle kunaicho_jp contain no behind-the-scenes juice.

Strictly factual captions explain what the emperor did on what day, from meeting foreign dignitaries to admiring bonsai trees, with comments moderated.

The account does not follow any other users, and has so far not ventured into Instagram Stories.

"The IHA is on Instagram! I thought it was an April Fools' prank!" one X user wrote in reaction to the launch.

"When I heard the IHA created an Instagram account, I quickly checked it out. But of course the emperor wouldn't post 'today's lunch (heart emoji)' or anything like that," wrote another.

Some users joked it was good the royals had chosen the more "civilized" Instagram over X, formerly Twitter.

Naruhito ascended the Chrysanthemum throne in 2019 in a tradition-laden ceremony after his highly popular father became the first emperor to abdicate in over two centuries.

Other monarchies have created social media accounts, including Britain's royals, who have recently been at the center of a storm of rumors and conspiracy theories.

The manipulation of a family photograph the palace released to the media fueled online speculation over the whereabouts of Catherine, Princess of Wales, who later revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer.

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Blood Tests Allow 30-year Estimates of Women's Cardio Risks, New Study Says

A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Blood Tests Allow 30-year Estimates of Women's Cardio Risks, New Study Says

A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A woman jogs in a park in Saint-Sebastien-sur-Loire near Nantes, France January 19, 2024. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Women’s heart disease risks and their need to start taking preventive medications should be evaluated when they are in their 30s rather than well after menopause as is now the practice, said researchers who published a study on Saturday.

Presenting the findings at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in London, they said the study showed for the first time that simple blood tests make it possible to estimate a woman’s risk of cardiovascular disease over the next three decades.

"This is good for patients first and foremost, but it is also important information for (manufacturers of) cholesterol lowering drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, and lipoprotein(a)lowering drugs - the implications for therapy are broad," said study leader Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Reuters reported.

Current guidelines “suggest to physicians that women should generally not be considered for preventive therapies until their 60s and 70s. These new data... clearly demonstrate that our guidelines need to change,” Ridker said. “We must move beyond discussions of 5 or 10 year risk."

The 27,939 participants in the long-term Women’s Health Initiative study had blood tests between 1992 and 1995 for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or “bad cholesterol”), which are already a part of routine care.

They also had tests for high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) - a marker of blood vessel inflammation - and lipoprotein(a), a genetically determined type of fat.

Compared to risks in women with the lowest levels of each marker, risks for major cardiovascular events like heart attacks or strokes over the next 30 years were 36% higher in women with the highest levels of LDL-C, 70% higher in women with the highest levels of hsCRP, and 33% higher in those with the highest levels of lipoprotein(a).

Women in whom all three markers were in the highest range were 2.6 times more likely to have a major cardiovascular event and 3.7 times more likely to have a stroke over the next three decades, according to a report of the study in The New England Journal of Medicine published to coincide with the presentation at the meeting.

“The three biomarkers are fully independent of each other and tell us about different biologic issues each individual woman faces,” Ridker said.

“The therapies we might use in response to an elevation in each biomarker are markedly different, and physicians can now specifically target the individual person’s biologic problem.”

While drugs that lower LDL-C and hsCRP are widely available - including statins and certain pills for high blood pressure and heart failure - drugs that reduce lipoprotein(a) levels are still in development by companies, including Novartis , Amgen , Eli Lilly and London-based Silence Therapeutics.

In some cases, lifestyle changes such as exercising and quitting smoking can be helpful.

Most of the women in the study were white Americans, but the findings would likely “have even greater impact among Black and Hispanic women for whom there is even a higher prevalence of undetected and untreated inflammation,” Ridker said.

“This is a global problem,” he added. “We need universal screening for hsCRP ... and for lipoprotein(a), just as we already have universal screening for cholesterol.”