KUALA LUMPUR: Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito will make a five-day official visit to Malaysia starting tomorrow (from April 13 to April 17) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of formal diplomatic ties between Japan and Malaysia.
In his first official visit to Malaysia, Naruhito is scheduled to attend a banquet hosted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V and meet with Prime Minister Najib Razak, as well as Malaysian students and Japanese residents.
Naruhito will arrive in Malaysia at 5.30pm tomorrow at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and will have back-to-back programmes from Friday onwards, where he will first pay a tribute to fallen heroes at the National Monument.
He will then visit the Pusat Permata Pintar to learn more about the school that was specially formed to nurture gifted children endowed with high intelligence, and interact with students.
The 57-year-old Crown Prince is also slated to visit Universiti Malaya where he is expected to deliver a speech and grant an audience to former overseas students of Japan, as well as to students who will study in Japan.
There will also be a commemorative tree-planting ceremony.
Day two of his visit will come to end with a 60th anniversary reception to celebrate the diplomatic relations between Japan and Malaysia, which will be held at the St Regis Hotel Kuala Lumpur.
On Saturday, Naruhito is slated to visit the Japanese School of Kuala Lumpur (JSKL), located in Selangor.
This will be followed by a luncheon with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya.
He will then visit the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART Tunnel) Control Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
Later in the evening, Naruhito will grant an audience to the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) and to Japanese residents in Malaysia at the official residence of the Ambassador of Japan.
On Sunday, the Crown Price is slated to visit the National Museum. He will then attend the 14th Japanese Speech Contest for Secondary School (2017) to be held at the Japan Club Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian students between the age of 15 and 18 studying the Japanese language will be participating in the contest. They will deliver a speech on the theme, “If things could talk…”.
The speech contest aims to encourage the contestants to give a public demonstration of their proficiency in the Japanese language.
Naruhito is then slated to grant an audience to Japanese descendants in Malaysia at the St. Regis Hotel Kuala Lumpur.
He will later pay a courtesy call to the King and attend a state banquet at Istana Negara.
The Crown Prince's visit to Malaysia comes to an end on Monday, April 17 where he is scheduled to depart KLIA for Tokyo at 11.05am.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relation between Japan and Malaysia, since it was established in 1957.
Since then, bilateral relations have been strengthened through the implementation of the Look East Policy, economic relations, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
Naruhito, the oldest son of Emperor Akihito, is first in line to the Chrysanthemum throne.
Speaking ahead of his first visit to Malaysia on Thursday, the Crown Prince had said, “It is a very good opportunity to promote mutual understanding as well as friendship and goodwill.”
He was reported to have said that such trips were an “extremely important task of the Imperial household.”
“I would like to promote international goodwill, treasuring the thoughts of the Emperor and Empress,” he said at his residence at Togu Palace.