There is one thing I've always found very strange about Japan and today I'd like to share it with you. It is that in the English language the monarch of Japan is called an emperor whilst on the other hand Japan isn't called an empire. Doesn't English demand precision in word usage?
Just before the end of WWI in 1918 there existed several emperors in the world, three in Europe (Germany, Austria and Russia) and one in Japan, but now there's only one left - the Japanese one. Before it was defeated in WWII in 1945, Japan was officially called an empire and internationally regarded as such, and therefore there was nothing strange about its monarch being called an emperor, but soon after the end of WWII Japan stopped calling itself an empire and yet the Japanese still call their monarch an emperor.
Now I'd like to suggest that this customary practice should be abolished immediately and permanently. It's all very well for them to call him 'tenno' in Japanese (Who cares?), but strictly calling him an emperor in English is not only incorrect but also misleading. If they believe it's quite appropriate to call him an emperor and they have no intention of changing the way they call him in English, then I'd like to suggest that the official name of their country should now be the Empire of Japan as it had been called till eight decades ago. Either they should stop calling their monarch an emperor or call their country an empire.