Saturday’s eight-day state visit to Britain by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako highlights some 150 years of exchanges between the Japanese imperial family and the British royal family.
Their first exchange took place in 1869, when Prince Alfred, the second son of Britain’s Queen Victoria, visited Japan on an ocean voyage and met with then Japanese Emperor Mutsuhito, known posthumously as Emperor Meiji.
Prince Alfred had a positive impression of the Japanese side at the time, said Naotaka Kimizuka, a professor at Kanto Gakuin University and an expert on the British royal family.
