Emperor?

One of my Korean friends often asks me, "How's Japanese emperor?"

...."Uh, I don't know. For many of us, He is just a symbol..He doesn't do any political thing."

Which caused me to think, "What is Japanese emperor?"
Strictly, he is not an "emperor", so i should not say he is emperor. But I can't find any other good words other than emperor.

It's kind of interesting, Korean, foreigners care about Japanese "emperor", but we don't.
Actually, he is in the top in the Japanese society, undoubtedly he should be treated the most preciously, respectfully. For foreign perspective, he can be seen pretty much important person in Japan.

Yeah, he is important, but we don't care about him so often, do we?

I very often think about what Japan is, who Japanese are, what Japanese are like since I came here, because every my friends says to me, "You are very Japanese."

What is Japanese?

This interesting question will never end...

I am very attracted to think about that kind of thing, I just decided to take a course about Japan in next quarter. (not "Japanese skill")

Maybe, in next quarter I take

1. 1st and 2nd language acquisition/ childhood to adolescent
2. Language as a cognitive system
3. Change of Japanese culture through 20th century
4. Social problems in the United States