Princess Aiko Leaves for Official Laos Visit

Tokyo, Nov. 17 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Princess Aiko left Tokyo International Airport at Haneda on Monday for her visit to Laos to mark 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Responding to the Lao government’s invitation, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako picked the Southeast Asian nation as the destination for her first official trip abroad. “I will do my best,” she said before getting on a commercial flight. After arriving in the Lao capital of Vientiane later in the day via Bangkok, Princess Aiko will pay a courtesy call to President Thongloun Sisoulith and attend a dinner hosted by Vice President Pany Yathotou on Tuesday. The following day, she will visit the COPE Visitor Center, which is promoting awareness about issues arising from bombs that have remained unexploded since they were dropped in Laos during Vietnam War, and observe a Japanese language class at an integrated junior and senior high school. On Thursday, the princess will make a day trip by train to the ancient city of Luang Prabang, where she will meet with a local secretary of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and visit a children’s hospital. She will depart from Vientiane on a commercial flight on Friday after visiting a woven fabric exhibition and meeting with Japanese nationals living in Laos, in the capital. She will return to Tokyo on Saturday. Princess Aiko has been carrying out her official duties as an adult member of the Imperial Family while working at the Japanese Red Cross Society. Prior to her Laos visit, she listened with the Empress to the Emperor’s story of his trip there in 2012, when he was Crown Prince, while looking at pictures from the trip in a photo album. The family also received a lecture from Yoko Kikuchi, a Tokyo University of Foreign Studies professor specializing in the modern and contemporary history of Laos. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]