Imperial couple said to be arriving for visit

Reports persist of the planned visit by the Japanese imperial couple to Saipan.

The Mainichi Shinbun, a daily newspaper in Japan, reported on Saturday that the U.S. government had told Japan that it welcomed a proposed visit by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko to Saipan ahead of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II this year.

Mainichi also said that after receiving official agreement on the visit from the federal government, the Japanese government sent an advance group to Saipan last Thursday and Friday.

Japan Consul Takeo Saito was not available yesterday for confirmation as to whether such delegation indeed arrived on island late last week.

But according to Mainichi, an advance team of five people, including representatives of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Affairs Bureau, visited a war memorial that the Japanese government erected on Saipan in 1974.

The imperial couple are reportedly planning to lay flowers at the memorial during their visit, which is expected to take place in the latter half of June.

The Saipan visit forms part of a proposed memorial trip by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko for the casualties of World War II. One of the battles most crucial to American victory during the war took place on Saipan.

Plans had also been drawn up for the couple to visit the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.

The Mainichi report said Japan entered into negotiations with U.S. officials over the trip in February after receiving a strong request from the emperor and empress. The United States, it added, conveyed its approval to Japanese Embassy officials at the beginning of this month.

The visit, Mainichi recalled, had originally been scheduled for March, but it was put off because it clashed with a visit to Japan by foreign leaders.

Reports of the couple’s planned visit have been going around for the past two years.

On June 26, 2003, another Japanese newspaper reported that Japan’s Foreign Ministry and the Imperial Household Agency were planning a 10-day tour of Saipan, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau from Feb. 27 to March 7, 2004.

It was to be the first postwar visit by a member of the Imperial family to this part of the world, the Daily Yomiuri had reported.

But in December 2003, Gov. Juan N. Babauta announced after a meeting with Consul Saito that the reported trip had been permanently shelved. No explanation was given regarding the cancellation.