In 1866, Italy and Japan signed a treaty of friendship and exchange. The time has come to celebrate the 150 years of these good relations. Representing his father His Imperial Majesty Emperor Akihito, Prince Akishino was therefore flown to Europe accompanied by his wife Princess Kiko, for a week-long visit on Italian soil.

Arriving in Rome on Tuesday May 10th, the Japanese royal couple was in turn met for two days the President of the Republic of Italy Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura, Council President Matteo Renzi and Pope Francis. The last visit of members of the imperial family of Japan to the Vatican had been more than 20 years. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko there had been received in audience in September 1993 by the late John Paul II.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Italian-Japanese Treaty, the Colosseum was part of a sound and light colors of both countries. During this stay in Rome, Akishino and Kiko, who has alternated kimono and Western dress, also visited the Forum and took part in a symposium entitled "The flowering branches of Japanese literature" at La Sapienza University.

After the Italian capital, the official travel of the younger son of the Japanese imperial couple and his wife continued to Milan, Bologna and Florence. Then their Imperial Highnesses Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko will return to Tokyo on  May 17th.
Photo Credits: Paris Match
MAy 11th

A national tribute was delivered on Friday March 11th in memory of Japan March 11th 2011  earthquake victims and tsunami  in the northeast of the archipelago, natural disasters amplified by a nuclear accident whose country is not delivered. Despite the cold and often the drizzle, with flowers, candles, families have gathered as every year in Sendai, Ishinomaki, Rikuzentakata, Minamisanriku and other places of the Northeast. A minute of silence was observed at 14:46 (5:46 GMT) throughout the country, just when five years ago, on a Friday also occurred off the main island of Honshu a magnitude 9 earthquake that shook a large part of the country.

"Five years have passed since the disaster, over 20,000 victims were killed," said His Imperial Msajesty Emperor Akihito(who recovered from an Influenza diagnosis) at a ceremony in Tokyo, with his wife Her Imperial Majesty Empress Michiko standing by his side before a huge audience of white flowers and yellow surrounding a commemorative plaque "to the victims of the great disaster of Tohoku" (northeast). "Japan is a pretty spoiled by nature, but sometimes it can be dangerous," said the head of state. He added: "We can never forget the TV images showing a black wall of water" breaking on the cities devastated by the tsunami. "I want one way or another work for the prevention of natural disasters", told NHK teenager named Shiori. "When I go to the affected areas, I feel that the disaster is ever present," said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged a united government "to rebuild a stronger country."

March 11, 2011, nearly 18,500 lives were swept away by a tidal wave of such magnitude that it occurs in "once a millennium," say the old Japan. Some 3,000 other people died later as a result of the tragedy, because of the deterioration of their living conditions. For days, the media back on this March 11, 2011, a Friday too, reviving painful memories of the hordes of panicked employees hurriedly leaving the skyscrapers of Tokyo, trains overturned in the North-East, appalling pictures , scarcely credible, whole towns swept away by the tsunami, unable to contact his family, each more desperate for information that cascaded each other, thousands and tens of thousands of missing persons. And then at the end of the day, the first alarming signals from two nuclear plants in Fukushima (Daiichi and Daini), evacuation and days and days of anxiety orders.
Photo from Asahi