Japan's royal family　（CBC News　Friday, July 3, 2009）

天皇、皇后両陛下は３日午後（日本時間４日未明）、政府専用機でカナダの首都オタワに御到着された。小雨が降る空港で、タラップを下りた両陛下は、オバマ大統領が初めての海外訪問でカナダを訪れたときのように王室騎馬警察の敬礼を受けながら、カナダのローレンス・キャノン（Lawrence Cannon）外相（Foreign Minister）と ビヴ・オダ（Bev Oda）企業相（Cooperation Minister）らの歓迎を受けた。

当初は、オバマ大統領を空港で迎えたミシェル・ジャン総督が両陛下を出迎える予定だったが、６月に亡くなったルブラン元総督の国葬がこの日に行われることになったため、外相が代役を務めた。

写真左：朝日より

両陛下は、ハワイに飛び立つ前に、カナダの最初の外交使節が日本に設立されてから８０年目になったことを祝うために、トロント、ヴィクトリア、ヴァンクーバーを御訪問される。

東京をご出発される際のスピーチで、７５歳になられる天皇が、１９５３年、１９歳の皇太子だったときに初めての海外旅行でカナダを訪問された思い出を語られた。

写真右：CBCニュースより
１９５３年にオンタリオ州のハミルトンで、日系カナダ人に囲まれた明仁親王（継宮）殿下だった頃。(Hamilton Spectator)

彼は故・裕仁昭和天皇の代理で英国でエリザベス２世の戴冠式に出席するため、カナダを列車で横断されたことがある。

「あれから５６年が過ぎた。今度は皇后と一緒にもう一度カナダを訪問できて、とても嬉しく思います。」と天皇は語られた。

土曜日（日本時間の日曜日）に、両陛下は、カナダで最も長く首相を務めたマッケンジー・キング（ 計２２年間：1921年から1926年まで, 1926年から1930まで、そして、1935年から1948年まで）の邸宅をご訪問される。

ここは、私も何度もいったけど、とても大きな庭園があってリラックスできるところ。ちなみに、マッケンジー・キングは、母親を愛するあまり、生涯を独身ですごしたといわれている。マッケンジー・キングの邸宅の暖炉の上には、今でも彼の母親の写真が飾られている。

そして、日曜日（日本時間の月曜日）は、日系カナダ人とのレセプションがあり、月曜日（日本時間火曜日）には、ミシェル・ジャン総督やステファン・ハーパー首相と対面される。

【More・・・】

これまでカナダでめったに話題になることがなかった日本の天皇皇后両陛下だが、今回のカナダ訪問を機会にメディアでは、日本の皇室について報道している。カナダのナショナル・ポストでは、天皇自身もストレスからご病気になられ、手術をしたばかりだし、美智子皇后陛下や雅子皇太子妃殿下もストレスから精神病にかかられたことなど、皇室が閉塞的であることから生じる問題が指摘されている。

参考記事：
両陛下、カナダにご到着　キャノン外相らが出迎え
（朝日　2009年7月4日10時16分）

Japan's emperor, empress arrive in Canada　（AFP)

Japan's royal family
Last Updated: Friday, July 3, 2009 | 11:16 PM ET
By Amber Hildebrandt, CBC News


写真：Japanese royals visit Canada
Peter Goodspeed, National Post
Published: Thursday, July 02, 2009

Anniversaries are important to the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy. That's why Japan's 125th Emperor, Akihito, and his wife, Empress Michiko, have been so busy in 2009.

They marked the 20th anniversary of the Emperor's ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne in January, after the 1989 death of his father, emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa.

In April, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, inviting 100 other Japanese "golden" couples to tea at the Imperial Palace.

Now, 80 years after Japan opened diplomatic relations with Ottawa, the world's only remaining Emperor and Empress are embarking on an 11-day tour of Canada. They arrive tomorrow in Ottawa.

Emperor Akihito's father was once worshiped as a living demigod, a direct descendant of Japan's first Emperor Jimmu (660 B. C.), reputedly descended from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. He never spoke in public until he was stripped of political power and forced to renounce his divine status after the Second World War.

While remaining a continuous link with Japan's past and a symbol of the state, Emperor Akihito has become something of an "ordinary" emperor, who has sought to narrow the distance between himself and ordinary people.

In Canada, he will attend a bevy of official banquets and receptions, but will also meet Japanese-Canadians in Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria and Vancouver, visit Ottawa's Carleton University, tour the Hospital for Sick Children and a Japanese-Canadian senior citizens' complex in Toronto, inspect Vancouver's Olympics site and visit Victoria's Institute of Ocean Sciences.

While no longer regarded as a god, the Emperor and his wife still live tightly regimented lives and suffer from stress-related illnesses. This year, Akihito had to cut back on his official duties because of an irregular pulse and stomach bleeding, which doctors attributed to "mental stress." He underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 2003.

The Empress has often complained of stress and suffered a breakdown in 1993, during which she did not speak for several months.

A decade later, Crown Princess Masako, wife of the Oxford-educated Crown Prince Naruhito, withdrew from most official duties and public appearances because of a nervous disorder. Her husband blamed it on her difficulties in adjusting to palace life and the pressure to bear a son to continue the imperial line.

Empress Michiko, daughter of a wealthy flour company president, was the first commoner to marry into the imperial family and she has played a crucial role in helping to shatter its isolation.

The couple broke with a tradition in which the emperor's children were removed from their parents at age three and raised by courtiers. Instead, they brought up their own family, sending their children to school with bento (home-packed) lunch boxes.

Unlike previous crown princes, Akihito was educated with commoners at the elite Gakushuin school.

But it is the common touch that has set the imperial couple apart. Japanese officials still gush with pride when they recall how they travelled to Nishinomiya, between Osaka and Kobe, in 1995 to comfort victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which had killed 6,400 people.

Anniversaries are important to the world's oldest continuous hereditary monarchy. That's why Japan's 125th Emperor, Akihito, and his wife, Empress Michiko, have been so busy in 2009.

They marked the 20th anniversary of the Emperor's ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne in January, after the 1989 death of his father, emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa.

In April, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, inviting 100 other Japanese "golden" couples to tea at the Imperial Palace.

Now, 80 years after Japan opened diplomatic relations with Ottawa, the world's only remaining Emperor and Empress are embarking on an 11-day tour of Canada. They arrive tomorrow in Ottawa.

Emperor Akihito's father was once worshiped as a living demigod, a direct descendant of Japan's first Emperor Jimmu (660 B. C.), reputedly descended from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. He never spoke in public until he was stripped of political power and forced to renounce his divine status after the Second World War.

While remaining a continuous link with Japan's past and a symbol of the state, Emperor Akihito has become something of an "ordinary" emperor, who has sought to narrow the distance between himself and ordinary people.

In Canada, he will attend a bevy of official banquets and receptions, but will also meet Japanese-Canadians in Ottawa, Toronto, Victoria and Vancouver, visit Ottawa's Carleton University, tour the Hospital for Sick Children and a Japanese-Canadian senior citizens' complex in Toronto, inspect Vancouver's Olympics site and visit Victoria's Institute of Ocean Sciences.

While no longer regarded as a god, the Emperor and his wife still live tightly regimented lives and suffer from stress-related illnesses. This year, Akihito had to cut back on his official duties because of an irregular pulse and stomach bleeding, which doctors attributed to "mental stress." He underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 2003.

The Empress has often complained of stress and suffered a breakdown in 1993, during which she did not speak for several months.

A decade later, Crown Princess Masako, wife of the Oxford-educated Crown Prince Naruhito, withdrew from most official duties and public appearances because of a nervous disorder. Her husband blamed it on her difficulties in adjusting to palace life and the pressure to bear a son to continue the imperial line.

Empress Michiko, daughter of a wealthy flour company president, was the first commoner to marry into the imperial family and she has played a crucial role in helping to shatter its isolation.

The couple broke with a tradition in which the emperor's children were removed from their parents at age three and raised by courtiers. Instead, they brought up their own family, sending their children to school with bento (home-packed) lunch boxes.

Unlike previous crown princes, Akihito was educated with commoners at the elite Gakushuin school.

But it is the common touch that has set the imperial couple apart. Japanese officials still gush with pride when they recall how they travelled to Nishinomiya, between Osaka and Kobe, in 1995 to comfort victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which had killed 6,400 people.

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• 両陛下がオタワに御到着 (2009/07/04)
• 父の日の独り言 (2009/06/22)
• 天皇皇后両陛下が7月にカナダとハワイを御訪問されるので、ダブル選挙はないのでは？ (2009/06/16)

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