The Imperial Household Agency on Monday announced details of a New Year's greetings event by the imperial family, which will be held for the first time in two years on Jan. 2 at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and other imperial family members will greet the general public by appearing on the balcony of the Chowa-den hall building at the palace three times in the morning and twice in the afternoon.
No draw will be conducted to choose visitors in advance. Visitors will enter the palace from the main gate between 9:30 a.m. and 2:10 p.m.
The agency expects some 20,000 visitors for each appearance. It will ask for the cooperation of visitors to leave the palace after each appearance and to keep a safe distance from each other.
The 2023 imperial New Year's greetings event, held for the first time after cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, used a lottery system to limit the number of visitors.
This year's greetings event, which had been planned to be held without a lottery, was canceled due to the powerful earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1.
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