Japanese Imperial Family Today

    His Majesty the Emperor of Japan has sent a telegram of sympathy to King Tupou VI of Tonga, who was struck by an underwater volcanic eruption in the South Pacific. The telegram was dated the 19th, the Imperial Household Agency revealed on the 20th. The relationship between the Imperial Family and the Tongan Royal Family is deep, and His Majesty has visited Tonga three times.   In 2006, when His Majesty was Crown Prince, he visited Tonga to attend the funeral of King Tupou IV. He attended the coronation of King Tupou V in 2008 alone and that of King Tupou VI in 2015 with Her Majesty the Empress (then Crown Princess). In addition to the luncheon, they met with Japanese residents and Japanese-Tongans.

  On the morning of January 18, the annual event of the Imperial Household, the "New Year’s Poetry Reading," was held in the Matsunoma Room of the Imperial Palace. The theme of this year's event was "Mado (Window)”. The participants took PCR tests beforehand and took all possible precautions against coronas before the event.   The Emperor and Empress of Japan and eight members of the Imperial Family recited their poems. Among them, Her Imperial Highness Princess Toshinomiya Aiko, the daughter of Their Majesties, who came of age last year and sang for the first time at the New Year's Poetry Festival, wrote a poem about her feelings when she attended the Eton Summer School in England when she was in high school, which drew much praise.   The following is an introduction to their poems and the background of the poems published by the Imperial Household Agency. Each member of the family translated the poems into English by themselves, and Her Majesty the

  Mr. Taro Aso   The ruling Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) Secretary-General Toshimitsu Mogi announced at a meeting of the party's General Affairs Council on January 18 that the party will establish a forum to discuss measures for the succession to the throne, following Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's report to the Diet on the results of an expert panel's study on a stable succession to the throne. It will be chaired by LDP's Vice President Taro Aso, with Mr. Mogi acting as chairman. Mr. Tatsuo Fukuda, Chairman of the Board of Governors, made the announcement at a press conference after the meeting.   Mr. Aso is the elder brother of Nobuko, the wife of the late Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, a cousin of former Emperor Akihito. Nobuko is known for her support of female emperors, as evidenced by the fact that she composed a poem about Her Imperial Highness Princess Toshinomiya Aiko at the last poetry festival. Mr. Aso himself is also said to be flexible in his stance on