Japan’s Emperor Naruhito yesterday expressed deep sorrow for the suffering of people in conflicts around the world, and stressed the importance of dialogue and cooperation in remarks released for his 63rd birthday.
Naruhito did not name other countries in his remarks days before the one-year anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Many people affected by war and conflicts have been killed, injured and forced into homelessness, sadness and fear, while others elsewhere suffer under oppression, poverty and prejudices, he said.
Photo: AP
“I feel deep sorrow for the difficult reality that the world faces,” Naruhito said at a palace news conference for Japanese media ahead of his birthday.
For all people to live peacefully and free of sadness and pain, “I strongly feel the importance for every country to think not only about itself, but to engage in dialogue to overcome differences and cooperate in solving problems,” he said.
“We face a question of what each of us can do to achieve a peaceful world,” he added.
Naruhito in the morning greeted well-wishers cheering and waving small Japanese flags who gathered at the palace to celebrate his birthday for the first time since he ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019 after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m truly delighted to have my birthday celebration with everyone this way for the first time” as emperor, he said in a short address from the palace balcony.
Naruhito was accompanied by Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, now 23, as well as his younger brother, Crown Price Akishino and his family.
Naruhito, who marks his 30th wedding anniversary in June with Masako, thanked her for spending half of her life with him.
“I thank her from the bottom of my heart and I’m deeply emotional,” he said. “For nearly 30 years, we had many experiences together and helped each other, while sharing joy and sorrow.”
A Harvard-educated former diplomat, Masako has struggled with depression and other stress-induced symptoms she developed soon after giving birth to Aiko and facing pressure to have a son to continue Japan’s male-only imperial succession.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
BACK TO BATTLE: North Korean soldiers have returned to the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region after earlier reports that Moscow had withdrawn them following heavy losses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals as part of a push to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s penchant for a deal. The US president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine’s war with Russia, on Monday said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskiy said, emphasizing Ukraine’s need for security guarantees
RSS