Eli5: Why is the Japanese emperor an emperor if Japan is not an empire and doesn’t have a king or multiple Kings below him?
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The Europeans translated the Chinese “皇帝” as Emperor because they ruled a vast land with control over multiple groups of people, held the highest diplomatic/political rank in the region, and was the military and cultural hedgemon of East Asia.
The Japanese title for their monarch is “天皇,” which is essentially a portmanteau of two Chinese Imperial titles, 皇帝 and 天子. The Japanese essentially just borrowed the title from China. They had some fights about it, but China never actually did anything to actually force the Japanese monarch to give up the title, and Japan drifted a bit further out of China’s sphere of influence, so the Chinese stopped pressing the issue in return for the Japanese Emperor’s cooperation to cut down Japanese pirates.
When the Europeans came along, they translated both as Emperor for consistency.
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