Photo/Illutration Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko attend the awards ceremony of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Prize and the Japan Academy Medal in Tokyo’s Taito Ward on Feb. 7. (Pool)

Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko will make an official visit to Britain from May 4 to 7 to attend the coronation of King Charles III.

The Cabinet approved the plan at a meeting on April 11.

This will be the first time for the couple to attend a foreign royal coronation and their first official visit to Britain.

They will make the visit on behalf of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.

The couple will depart on a government plane from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on the morning of May 4.

They will attend a reception hosted by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in London on the afternoon of May 5 and the coronation at Westminster Abbey the next morning.

They will leave London later in the day and return to Japan in the afternoon of May 7.

The invitation from the British royal family, which arrived via diplomatic channels on March 24, requested that “the head of state and their accompanying persons” attend the ceremony, according to the Imperial Household Agency.

It said that in cases where the head of state cannot attend, a representative can participate, instead, the agency said.

Fumihito interacted with then-Prince Charles while studying in Britain in 1989, as well as in Japan in 1970, 1986 and 2019.

In 2019, Kiko also accompanied him on Charles' visit to Japan. 

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