Over 500 people are present including the Prime Minister, government officials, representatives of state and private sector firms, society groups and members of the press.

[2] The Daijosai is a highly secret ritual that very few people know the full details of, this has led to controversy with some claiming it violates Women's rights,[3] and Article 20 of the Japanese constitution, which separates religion from government.

[5]　In 1983, Okada Seiji sharply criticized this theory, advocating the rite of holy matrimony, and it gained a certain amount of support in the Japanese historical community.

Of the ceremonial rites stipulated in the Engi-Shiki, only the Omamesai was designated as a "daisai" (ritual of the Great Taste of Rice).

In August 1545, Emperor Go-Nara wrote a decree to the Ise Jingu Shrine to pray for the restoration of the imperial family and the people, and at the same time to apologize for the inability to hold the tame-matsuri ceremony.

The Shogunate, which had been at loggerheads with the Imperial Court due to the Murasaki Incident and other events, was reluctant to request the same ceremonial protocol as in the previous case (when Emperor Reigen ascended to the throne), but after negotiations, the reestablishment was approved on condition that the entire budget for the succession to the throne be paid in the same amount as in the previous case.

First, two special rice paddies (斎田, saiden) are chosen and purified by elaborate Shinto purification rites.

Once the rice is grown and harvested, it is stored in a special Shinto shrine as its go-shintai (御神体), the embodiment of a kami or divine force.

West-region hall) are built within a corresponding special enclosure, using a native Japanese building style that predates and is thus devoid of all Chinese cultural influence.

All furniture and household items also preserve these earliest, and thus most purely Japanese forms: e.g., all pottery objects are fired but unglazed.

Surrounded by courtiers (some of them carrying torches), the emperor solemnly enters first the enclosure and then each of these huts in turn and performs the same ritual—from 6:30 to 9:30 pm in the first, and in the second from 12:30 to 3:30 am on the same night.

A special umbrella is held over the sovereign's head, in which the shade hangs from a phoenix carved at the end of the pole and prevents any defilement of his sacred person coming from the air above him.

Kneeling on a mat situated to face the Grand Shrine of Ise, as the traditional gagaku court music is played by the court orchestra the emperor makes an offering of the sacred rice, the sake made from this rice, millet, fish and a variety of other foods from both the land and the sea to the kami, the offerings of east and west being made in their corresponding halls.

Then he eats some of this sacred rice himself, as an act of divine communion that consummates his singular unity with Amaterasu-ōmikami, thus making him (in Shinto tradition) the intermediary between Amaterasu and the Japanese people.

The significance of the offerings and the ceremonial dinner of the tithes is as an act of thanksgiving to Amaterasu and Tenjin Jigami, the ancestors of the Emperor, and as a prayer for the nation and its people's peace and good harvests in his reign.

[21] He then prays to the gods in gratitude, and then leaves the huts so that the Empress may then performs the same ceremonial protocol there before departing the complex.

"[26] On 10 December 2018, 241 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the government in the Tokyo District Court seeking an injunction to stop the government from spending money and compensation for damages on the grounds that the implementation of the "Rei (retirement)", "Sokui-no-rei (enthronement)", and "Taitei-Matsuri (tasting of rice)" ceremonies following the abdication of Emperor Akihito and accession of Crown Prince Naruhito, under the provisions of the Special Act on the Imperial Household Law concerning the Abdication of the Emperor, violates the Constitutional provision stipulating separation of church and state.

[citation needed] Emperor Shōwa reportedly told his aides that they should save and accumulate the money for the inner court.

[27] Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu once suggested, "Why don't we just do it at the Three Palace Sanctuaries, where the annual Niinamesai is held, without building a large daijokyu?"

[29][30] The government and the Imperial Household Agency followed the precedent of the Heisei era and spent money from the national budget, but changed the roof of the daijokyu, which had previously been thatching, to shingles, and reduced expenses by building some facilities such as the kashiwaya (kitchens for the offerings of food to be prepared in) in reinforced concrete under the premise that it was acceptable as long as it didn't alter the rituals or serve as an impediment to them.

On the occasion of the Heisei Daijosai, the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace were completely closed as an anti-terrorist measure during the construction of the Imperial Palace, due to the active anti-emperor extremist movement at the time, and once completed, the main buildings were covered with large protective tents of extremely solid construction, and four 2,500-liter Fire prevention tanks and fire pumps were installed in four locations.