Emperor’s Family to Tour Northeast Japan 15 Years On

Tokyo, Feb. 25 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, will visit three northeastern prefectures beginning next month that were hardest hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami to mark 15 years since the disaster, the Imperial Household Agency said Wednesday. The family will visit Iwate and Miyagi on March 25-26 and Fukushima on April 6-7 to inspect progress made in reconstruction efforts, planning to meet with people in areas hit by the disaster. It will be Princess Aiko’s first visit to the three prefectures. According to the agency, they will fly to Iwate on March 25 and lay flowers at “Chinkon no Mori,” a memorial facility in the town of Otsuchi. They will also visit the city of Ofunato to meet with people affected by the 2011 disaster and a forest fire that broke out in February last year. The following day, the family will move to Miyagi and visit a disaster memorial facility in the town of Minamisanriku. In the city of Ishinomaki, they will offer flowers at Ishinomaki Minamihama Tsunami Memorial Park and speak with disaster victims, before returning to Tokyo that evening. On April 6, they will travel by Shinkansen bullet train to Fukushima to visit the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum in the town of Futaba, home to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s tsunami-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. They will lay flowers and meet disaster victims there. The next day, they will tour a disaster memorial facility in the town of Tomioka and observe classes at “Manabiya Yumenomori,” an educational facility in the town of Okuma, also home to the nuclear plant. They will also stop at a roadside service area in the town of Namie, before returning to Tokyo at night. At a press conference earlier this month ahead of his birthday on Monday, Emperor Naruhito said he wished to “listen to the voices of people in disaster-hit areas and remain close to the public,” adding that he hoped Princess Aiko would also keep disaster victims in her thoughts. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]