Japan names day after Hirohito

[Mike Cash]

Probably, like me, they don't see what an internal matter like Japanese holidays has to do with the sensibilities of people in other countries.

Regarding your second question: As I said, the new Emperor's birthday (Dec. 23) became a holiday and the old one ceased to be celebrated as such. The problem was that he reigned so damned long and the date fell right into Golden Week that just wiping it off the calendar entirely wasn't something viewed as acceptable. Since they couldn't have two Emperor's Birthday holidays, they came up with the "Greenery Day" thing to preserve the tradition of taking a day off then. Nobody much cared so long as they got their day off and GW didn't get messed up.

[bossel]

Probably, like me, they don't see what an internal matter like Japanese holidays has to do with the sensibilities of people in other countries.

Well, that is easily explained: The guy this holiday refers to is the one finally responsible for the death & suffering of millions of non-Japanese. Hence not only Japanese are concerned, similar to the Yasukuni visits which are not entirely internal Japanese affairs, either. The symbolic meaning radiates far beyond Japanese borders.