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Secret Service to secure Japanese imperial couple
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Posted on May 12 2005
Secret Service staff and their counterpart from Japan will lead a high-level security team in the CNMI for the visiting Japanese imperial couple in June, according to Gov. Juan N. Babauta.
Babauta, during a Cabinet meeting yesterday, said that both the U.S. State Department and the Department of the Interior will send Secret Service personnel to the CNMI for the visit of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on June 27 and 28.
The governor said that top security aide from the Japanese government are also expected to arrive.
All the security details, he said, will be taken cared of by police commissioner Sandy Tudela.
At the same time, the governor said that he is forming a special committee to handle the welcoming event for the royal couple.
This committee, he said, would be led by the Marianas Visitors Authority.
“This is a very significant visit. We want to make sure that the emperor and empress and the entire entourage will feel the warmth and hospitality in the CNMI,” said the governor.
Babauta met last month with the Japanese consul general on Guam, Kennosuke Iriyama, and consul Takeo Saito on Saipan to discuss the details of the visit.
An advance team from Japan had also reportedly arrived on Saipan in early April to check on the sites to be visited by the imperial couple.
The imperial couple has reportedly long expressed a strong desire to visit Saipan, the site of fierce fighting between Japanese and U.S. forces during World War II.
