The drawing is based on an image in which the Emperor is making a public speech, stating that he is getting too old to be an Emperor anymore, and he wants to resign from his position. It happened in last year and was a big moment for Japan. By constitution, the Emperor of Japan is a symbol of the State. Biologically, of course, he is a human being, yet, in the social space, his body is constrained for this big role given to him. Our brain perceives, recognizes, and reads the other's face as set of signs, like smiling face, angry face, sad face, serious face, and nose, eyes, mouths, and so on... We read the coordinates of these signs spread on other's face to communicate, understand, and express. In the public space, on Emperor's face, only "smile" and "serious" is allowed. He is not allowed to express any other feelings with his face, like sad, cry, angry and so on. The only way for him to express his inner feeling is through ritualistic speech, or through writing poems in Haiku style.
