How does Japan's emperial past influence it today?

You left out the “Homework” tag. :\

The modern Japanese economy is fairly unrelated to anything that the Emperor does or did. It became what it so recently was because an enterprising businessman or ten saw an opportunity and made the most of it.

Wikipedia has a long and detailed article about Japan, complete with cited sources at the bottom of the page.

Ditto to @Nullo about the homework thing. :[

The Emperor never had much of anything to do with the economy of Japan. He was mainly a figurehead throughout all of Japan’s history, only exerting direct power during short periods of time. I mean, as the Emperor he had to get a pretty large income so he could have all his fancy clothes and stuff, but he never made any laws about economy.

Culturally, you could talk endlessly about that. The people sincerely believed he was a god until 1945. People sacrificed themselves for his sake. The book Japan: A Documentary History has some interesting primary sources about the Emperor in Japanese culture.

For government, look up the role of the Emperor in the Meiji Constitution versus the modern Japanese constitution. That’ll give you some idea about how he’s affected the government.

Sorry, I’d rather not provide any more direct answers for you than that. It’s your homework, not mine.

thanks guys :)