The Japanese Emperor and Empress will re-live their Indian experience 53 years after they first came to the country as a young couple on their honeymoon. To make this experience as memorable as the first, they will be welcomed by a select gathering — as they had been in 1960 when Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko had visited India as the then Crown Prince and Princess.

Among the Emperor and Empress’s stops in Delhi will be a meeting at the India International Centre (IIC) and also looking at the progress made by the sapling that they had planted in the Embassy’s premises on their last visit.

Giving details of the royal couple’s first official visit to South Asia beginning this Sunday, Japanese Embassy officials said on Wednesday, “The list of invitees at IIC includes those who were present in 1960 and some of their descendants.” Embassy officials, however, declined to reveal the names of those invited for the event. The royal couple will also visit Chennai during their six-day trip to the country.

Given that like any other foreign visit by the royal couple the Emperor and Empress’s India visit is also on the “advice and approval” of the Japanese Cabinet, it gives impetus to the relationship between the two countries that has been growing by leaps and bounds in all fields.

India and Japan are hoping that the royal visit will give a boost to people-to-people contacts and help remove the “psychological” distance that exists about India among Japanese minds. “It is very unlikely that India will be the first place that a Japanese couple will look to spend their honeymoon just as for small and medium enterprises China is likely to be the first investment destination. But it is hoped that the visit will give a positive momentum and impetus to relations between the two countries,” the official said.

>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in

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