Photo/Illutration Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako speak with victims of Typhoon No. 19 at temporary housing in Marumori, Miyagi Prefecture, on Dec. 26. (Tatsuya Shimada)

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Dec. 26 comforted victims of flooding from Typhoon No. 19 and other heavy rains in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures.

The day trip to northeastern Japan marked their first visit to the areas since the emperor’s ascension to the throne in May.

During the series of events related to the emperor’s enthronement, Naruhito and Masako worried over the state of disaster-hit areas, according to the Imperial Household Agency, and said they wanted to visit the areas as soon as possible.

The couple’s gesture indicates that they are following the example set by Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, who often visited disaster-hit areas around the country to personally meet with local residents when they were emperor and empress.

Naruhito and Masako departed Haneda Airport in the morning for the trip aboard a special plane for Sendai Airport in Miyagi Prefecture. From the airport, they boarded a Self-Defense Force helicopter to visit Marumori in the prefecture, and Motomiya, Fukushima Prefecture. The couple is scheduled to return to Tokyo on the evening of Dec. 26.

The couple has a long history of traveling to disaster-hit areas to meet with victims. In January 1995, when the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Kobe and surrounding areas, the couple cut short their trip to the Middle East to return to Japan. In February, they went to Kobe to encourage victims of the quake.

After the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, the couple repeatedly visited the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. They twice more returned to those prefectures by 2017.

Masako, who has been receiving treatment for "adjustment disorder," mentions her concern for disaster victims every year in a statement marking her birthday.

“I think about many people who are suffering in disaster-hit areas every day,” Masako wrote in one statement.

Naruhito, an expert on water-related issues, has repeatedly spoken of the importance of learning from past disasters to prepare for similar events in the future.

In March 2013, the emperor stressed the importance of building a society that is disaster ready in a speech at a U.N. Special Thematic Session on Water and Disasters in New York.

“The emperor has always been deeply concerned about disasters both at home and abroad,” said Kenzo Hiroki, an adviser to the emperor’s research, who is also a professor of preparedness against water-related disasters at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. “I think the emperor has an especially strong interest in the recent typhoons, which were unprecedented in their scale."