Emperor, empress celebrate 60 years of marriage

TOKYO -- Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko marked their 60th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, with various celebratory events scheduled during the day ahead of the emperor's abdication at the end of the month.

With their elder son Crown Prince Naruhito, 59, ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne on May 1, this will be the last time they celebrate their wedding anniversary during the 85-year-old emperor's reign.

In 1959, then Crown Prince Akihito married Michiko Shoda, the daughter of a businessman, making her the first commoner ever to wed an heir to the imperial throne.

The emperor will step down on April 30, becoming the first Japanese monarch to abdicate in more than 200 years.

Although the emperor and Empress Michiko, 84, will not attend, a cross-party group of lawmakers will stage a festival later in the day to celebrate Emperor Akihito's 30-year reign at the National Theater in Tokyo.

The event will feature a performance of a song based on poems written by the emperor and the empress as well as popular musicians such as Yumi Matsutoya, MISIA and folk duo Yuzu.

Film director Takeshi Kitano and Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012 for developing so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, are scheduled to make congratulatory speeches.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, are among some 1,800 people expected to attend the festival.

Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190410/p2g/00m/0na/022000c