Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will likely visit Mongolia in July, the first trip to the country by a reigning imperial couple, people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
This will be the couple's third overseas goodwill trip since the emperor's accession to the throne in 2019 following their visits to Indonesia in 2023 and Britain in 2024.
The emperor and empress are expected to attend a ceremony during Mongolia's annual Naadam festival at the invitation of the Mongolian side, the people said.
The couple are also expected to visit a monument erected to remember Japanese nationals who died in Mongolia after being detained by the former Soviet Union during World War II. This year marks the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in the war.
Emperor Naruhito visited the monument during his trip in 2007 when he was the crown prince.
After the end of the war, some 14,000 Japanese people were taken to Mongolia by the former Soviet Union for forced labor. The Japanese government built the monument near Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, to remember the about 1,700 Japanese detainees who died there.
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