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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, March 13, 2009

Japan's emperor, empress will visit Hawaii for three days in July

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will visit in July.

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The emperor and empress of Japan, who drew large crowds during their last visit to Hawai'i 15 years ago, will stop in the Islands for three days in July on their way home from a visit to Canada.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will arrive in Honolulu July 14 and go to the Big Island on July 16. The royal couple will then leave the Big Island and return home to Japan that same day, said Hajime Kido, Japan's deputy consul general in Honolulu.

Details of the visit have not been finalized, but Kido said the couple probably will not visit Pearl Harbor, as had been rumored.

"So far, in the original plan, Pearl Harbor is not included," Kido said.

Akihito and Michiko last visited Hawai'i in June 1994 as part of a 10-city goodwill tour of the United States. During their stay, Akihito made a historic visit to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl to pay tribute to America's war dead.

The 1994 visit was to have included a stop at Pearl Harbor, but that item was removed from their itinerary because of political pressure from the Japanese government.

One of the reasons the royal couple will be visiting the Islands this summer will be to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a scholarship foundation set up in their honor.

The Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation was established as a wedding gift to the couple by residents of Hawai'i in 1959. Each year, two students from the University of Hawai'i are given scholarships to study in Japan and two Japanese students are granted scholarships to study in Hawai'i.

Edwin Hawkins, president of the Japan-America Society of Hawaii, which administers the scholarship, said his organization is hoping to hold a reception for the emperor and empress. He said the plan is to open the event to the public.

Hawkins said the plan also is to invite the 129 people who have received scholarships over the years. A site for the reception has not been determined, he said.

"We are very, very thrilled, needless to say, that they will give us an opportunity," Hawkins said of the royal family. "This is a very special event and we're certainly going to do all we can to make it as memorable and meaningful as possible."

Knowing that the 50th anniversary was coming up, Hawkins said JASH has been working for the past four years to invite the emperor and his wife to Hawai'i. Now that the visit is official, he said a lot of coordination needs to be done with the Japan Consul General in Hawai'i and the Imperial Household Agency, a Cabinet-level agency in Japan that plans the affairs of the imperial family.

"We're going to be busy. We don't have too long," he said. "The good thing is we were hoping that this would happen and we knew that it would be around this time. We've had a planning group in place to look at all of the possible options so we had some sort of a head start."

Hawkins said the scholarship foundation holds a special place in the heart of the emperor. Each year, Akihito and Michiko hold a special audience with the scholarship recipients, he said.

"So it's not just that they've lent their names to the scholarship, but they stay connected because of the audience each year," Hawkins said. "I think that's probably one of the reasons they wanted to stop by here and participate in the anniversary event."

When the couple visited Hawai'i in 1994, they drew hundreds of well-wishers everywhere they went. Kido and Hawkins expect the same this time around because of the state's large Japanese population and number of people visiting from Japan.

For Tochiho Enomoto, getting a glimpse of the emperor and empress would be the thrill of a lifetime. The 70-year-old retired secretary was born in Tokyo and has lived in Hawai'i for about 30 years.

Enomoto said she has never seen Japan royalty in person.

"It's very hard to see them unless it's a very special occasion," she said. "On the new year, if you go to the Imperial Palace, you may see them through the balcony, but it's very far away."

Although the royal family has no political authority in Japan, Enomoto said its members still are revered by people like her.

"Like my age, we have a loyalty to the royal family. They are a symbol of the country," she said. "If I could, I'd like to see them, even if it's from far away."

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.