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People sign their names in the visitors’ register to express their support for Japanese Emperor Akihito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo yesterday |
Akihito, 78, has been receiving treatment for heart problems for the past year, and doctors decided last week that he needs a coronary bypass operation. Television showed a smiling Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko, 77 , being greeted by medical staff at the entrance of the University of Tokyo hospital. The operation will take about five hours.
Akihito, who became emperor after the death in 1989 of his father Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought World War Two, is credited with working to close the gap between the imperial family and ordinary Japanese people. He had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 and suffered stress-related health issues in late 2008.
The following year the Imperial Household Agency, which oversees duties carried out by the imperial family, said he would cut back on official tasks such as speeches and meeting foreign dignitaries. But five days after the earthquake and tsunami last March that devastated large areas of Japan’s northeast coast, Akihito made an unprecedented televised address urging people to lend each other a helping hand in difficult times. Reuters