VIENTIANE, Laos: Japan’s Princess Aiko arrived in Laos on Monday for her first official overseas trip, state media said, a largely symbolic visit to Tokyo’s small beneficiary in Southeast Asia.
The 23-year-old princess — Emperor Naruhito’s only child who is however not in line to the throne due to the Japanese royal family’s male-only succession rules — will spend the week in the communist country on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
One of Asia’s largest economies, Japan has provided more than $370 million in grants to Laos between 2019 and 2024, making it one of the poor nation’s largest bilateral donors. Much of the over 150 development projects in that time have been funded through Japan’s overseas development agency, JICA.
Laos, a former French colony and a nation of around eight million people, has limited exports and its government is heavily indebted to foreign lenders. During her trip through Saturday, Aiko is scheduled to meet President Thongloun Sisoulith and visit a museum to raise awareness about unexploded ordnance left over from the Vietnam War, which continues to kill and injure people in Laos.
Japan has long supported ordnance clearing and rehabilitation programs in the country.
Aiko will also attend a martial arts competition at the Japan-supported Budo Center and visit a Japanese-language school, according to Japanese media reports. Japan often sends younger members of the royal family on goodwill missions across Southeast Asia, quiet gestures of soft power meant to build personal, long-term connections beyond politics. Even though Japanese tradition dictates only a man can carry on the centuries-old imperial line, opinion polls have shown high public support for a woman taking the throne.
Laos has in recent years hosted a handful of international royals. Neighboring Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn visited this year and last year, the Sultan of Brunei in 2023, and Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Henri in 2022. Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, then-crown prince, last visited Laos in 2012. — AFP
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