Piperine, along with its isomer chavicine, is the alkaloid responsible for the pungency of black pepper and long pepper. It has been used in some forms of traditional medicine.
In the Japanese constitutional monarchy, the emperor does not have any political power. In world politics, he is the only current emperor. The current emperor is His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Akihito. He has been on the Chrysanthemum Throne since his father Emperor ShÅwa (Hirohito) died in 1989. The amount of power belonging to the emperor of Japan has changed a lot throughout Japanese history.
In 1192, a military leader called Minamoto Yoritomo had the Emperor appoint him shogun; he set up his own capital in Kamakura, far to the east of the Emperor's capital in Kyoto, near present-day Tokyo. For almost 700 years after that, Japan was ruled mainly by a succession of shoguns, whose titles were usually passed on from father to son. Sometimes the shogun's family would become weak, and a rebel leader would seize power from them, after which he would be named shogun and would start a new ruling family. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the shogunate in 1603 in present-day Tokyo.