Records of heads of state
Officially, the current Emperor of Japan, Akihito is the 125th in line from the first emperor Jimmu, who is variously believed to have reigned in the 1st or 7th century BC. The earliest documentary evidence is only for the 29th emperor, Kinmei (AD 509–571); however, this is sufficient such that even the most conservative of estimates still places the Japanese imperial family as among the oldest lines in the world today.
Japanese imperial family tree
Modern scholars have come to question the existence of at least the first nine Emperors; Kōgen's descendant, Emperor Sujin (98 BC – 30 BC?), is the first for which many agree that he might have actually existed. These monarchs are regarded by historians as "legendary emperors", since there are insufficient material available for further verification and study.