Public Service
Crown Prince Naruhito attends, together with Crown Princess Masako, events and ceremonies within the Imperial Palace, including ceremonies for the New Year and other events such as the Emperor and Empress' Garden Parties. On the occasion of visits by State guests from overseas, they attend welcome receptions, Court luncheons and State banquets at the Imperial Palace.
The Crown Prince attends, together with the Crown Princess, a variety of ceremonies, international and national tournaments and other events held in Japan. Important events they have attended include the National Awards Ceremony for the Promotion of Blood Donation, the National Inter-High School Championship, the National Cultural Festival, the National Tree-Care Festival, the National Sports Games for the Disabled, the Protect the Greenery Gathering, and the National Leaders of Agriculture Summit, during the course of which they have also been able to review for themselves the regions of Japan.
The work of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess includes such official duties at the Crown Prince's Residence as meeting with dignitaries from Japan and overseas, receiving Japanese ambassadors and their spouses before their postings abroad and receiving foreign ambassadors and their spouses before their departure from Japan. They also meet with foreign study groups visiting Japan and representatives of domestic youth groups.
The Crown Princess has also been an Honorary Vice-President of the Japanese Red Cross Society since April 1994.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess have made visits to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar and the State of Bahrain in 1994, to the State of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1995, and again to Jordan in 1999. Additionally in 1999, they visited the Kingdom of Belgium on the occasion of the wedding of Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant. In 2002, they paid a visit to New Zealand and the Commonwealth of Australia.
Read more about this topic: Crown Princess Masako
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or service:
“The poorest children in a community now find the beneficent kindergarten open to them from the age of two-and-a-half to six years. Too young heretofore to be eligible to any public school, they have acquired in their babyhood the vicious tendencies of their own depraved neighborhoods; and to their environment at that tender age had been due the loss of decency and self-respect that no after example of education has been able to restore to them.”
—Virginia Thrall Smith (1836–1903)
“The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community,—these are the most vital things education must try to produce.”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)