Abdications in the modern age: crowned heads who have retired in recent years

Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko greet guests at a garden party at the Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in 2018 (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

Queen Margrethe II has become Denmark’s first monarch to abdicate in nearly 900 years and handed over the throne to her son, who is now King Frederik X.

Margrethe always maintained during her 52-year-reign that she would not quit, but back surgery and other ailments left her unable to undertake as much as she could in the past.