Japan's retired former emperor is to be hospitalized for heart tests, Japanese media say
Japan's Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko greet well-wishers through a bullet-proof glass from a balcony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Jan. 2, 2023. (Franck Robichon / Pool Photo via AP, File)
TOKYO — Japan's Emperor Emeritus Akihito will undergo heart tests at a hospital after an unspecified problem was detected during a routine checkup, Japanese media reports said Monday.
The Imperial Household Agency did not answer calls to its office on Monday, a national holiday, to confirm reports by the Kyodo News Service and several other Japanese media.
Akihito, 91, who is retired, is the father of Emperor Naruhito. He abdicated from the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019.
Kyodo said Akihito will be hospitalized, starting Tuesday, at the University of Tokyo Hospital. Other details were not immediately available. Akihito had heart bypass surgery in 2012.
Akihito ascended to the throne after his father, Hirohito, died in 1989. No other emperor has abdicated in modern Japanese history. But Akihito has broken with other imperial tradition. He was the first emperor to marry a commoner, Empress Michiko.
Article written by The Associated Press
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