A law enacted six years ago has given historians a new powerful weapon to challenge a long-held taboo preserved by the Imperial Household Agency: investigating the secrets of ancient emperors' tombs.
The weapon is the public information disclosure law, which has allowed Noboru Toike, assistant professor at Den-en Chofu University and an expert on Imperial tombs, to access and obtain copies of internal agency documents.
The documents suggest that the agency, despite official denials, once conducted academic studies to review the attributions for at least 10 ancient tombs that it claims belong to emperors from the early fifth century to the early 13th century.