Japan’s Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, who is in Laos on an official visit, is scheduled to visit the Southeast Asian country’s ancient capital of Luang Prabang on Thursday.
The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On Wednesday, the Princess visited a school in the capital, Vientiane, where Japanese teachers have been dispatched to teach Japanese language and culture.
She also inspected a facility exhibiting information on unexploded ordnance, or UXO, left over from the Vietnam War era of the 1960s and ’70s, as well as a center teaching Japanese martial arts.
An aide said the Princess was touched when she was presented with a portrait of herself at the school.
The aide also said that through her visit to the UXO center, the Princess became more aware of the magnitude and seriousness of the problem of dud shells, as she learned that roughly one-third of Laos remains contaminated with UXO.
Princess Aiko will follow in the footsteps of her father when she visits the Wat Xieng Thong temple and the national museum in Luang Prabang.
Emperor Naruhito inspected the monuments when he was in Laos on an official visit in 2012 as Crown Prince.
The Princess is also scheduled to visit a children’s hospital established in the ancient capital by a Japanese nonprofit organization.
AloJapan.com