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Japan’s Prince Akihito, Wife Visit U.S.

Associated Press

The crown prince and princess of Japan arrived in the United States on Saturday to begin an eight-day visit cut short by the illness of the prince’s father, Emperor Hirohito.

Crown Prince Akihito and his wife, Princess Michiko, were to spend two days in Boston before visiting Washington, where they will be dinner guests of President Reagan at the White House on Tuesday. The couple also will travel to New York for two days before they return to Tokyo on Saturday.

The prince and princess are scheduled today to visit the Massachussetts seacoast town of Fairhaven, where it is believed the first Japanese citizen to come to the United States lived after being rescued in 1841 from a Pacific island by a whaling ship.

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Akihito and Michiko were scheduled to make an 18-day trip, including a visit to Los Angeles. The visit was shortened after the 86-year-old Hirohito, the world’s longest reigning monarch, underwent an intestinal bypass operation.

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