TOKYO: Japanese Empress Emerita Michiko turned 90 on Sunday, working on rehabilitation after her recent leg injury.
This month, she broke her right femur when she fell at the Sento Imperial Residence in Tokyo and went through a surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital. She left the hospital Oct. 13.
The Empress Emerita works on rehabilitation for more than an hour per day toward independent walking.
According to an aide, the former empress had led disciplined life calmly with Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 90, before her injury.
She reflects on her past travels around Japan, pays attention to people’s lives and society and hopes that things will go well.
She is saddened every time she encounters media reports about people and areas affected by the powerful earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 and thinks of people affected by September’s heavy rains in the region.
Excluding for health checkups, she went out for the first time this year on April 9 to offer a prayer at Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, for the 110th anniversary of the death of Empress Dowager Shoken.
In May, she visited Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, to which the Emperor Emeritus evacuated during World War II. She listened as he talked about that time.
She values connections through music and visited a concert held in July in the Toka-gakudo concert hall at the Imperial Palace to mark the couple’s 90th birthdays. She showed her gratitude for the performance by six musicians she has known for a long time.
She is happy about the growth of Princess Aiko, 22, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, and Prince Hisahito, 18, the son of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko. The Empress Emerita watches over activities of Imperial Family members.
She has been paying special attention to the condition of Princess Yuriko, 101, who has been in hospital since March, as she deeply trusts the princess.
The Empress Emerita is in a wheelchair and is refraining from her routine walk in the morning and the evening. But she has restarted her routine of reading books aloud with the Emperor Emeritus after breakfast. They are reading a book about war and Okinawa written by Shui Ikemiyagushiku.
An aide said that the Empress Emerita will be able to walk with a cane if she continues rehabilitation.
Her birthday celebration event will be held in a simple form in the Sento Imperial Residence.
JIJI Press