Japan Emperor, Empress Visit Quake-Hit Kumamoto Pref.

Kumamoto, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visited Kumamoto Prefecture on Wednesday to comfort people affected by a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture in late July and to thank those engaged in relief and support activities, including medical professionals and firefighters.

The Imperial couple left Tokyo's Haneda Airport on a special flight in the morning and arrived at Kumamoto Airport around 11:30 a.m. They transferred to a Self-Defense Forces helicopter, which carried the couple to a temporary heliport on a riverbank in the city of Yatsushiro in the afternoon.

Soon after getting off the helicopter, they bowed silently toward areas heavily damaged by the July 28 quake, including Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s Yatsushiro plant, where a chimney collapsed, killing nine people.

According to Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura, who accompanied the couple, the Emperor and the Empress viewed from the helicopter the Nippon Paper plant and the Aeon Mall Kumamoto shopping facility in the town of Kashima, where an explosion that occurred shortly after the quake killed seven people.

In Yatsushiro, the couple, wearing badges of "Kumamon," the prefecture's official black bear mascot, on their chests, visited a facility that is used as a shelter and currently accommodates about 80 evacuees. Empress Masako talked to Koichi Tomita, 82, and his wife, saying, among other things, "The (summer) heat must also have been tough."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]