BSS, Tokyo
President M Abdul Hamid on Tuesday attended Japanese new Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony where the emperor proclaimed his ascension to the throne as Japan’s 126th monarch in front of leaders and representatives from 174 countries and regions at the Imperial Palace here.
The ceremony at the Seiden State Hall started at 1 pm (local time, as the emperor announced his enthronement from the 6.5-meter-high canopied throne, known as the takamikura.
President Hamid’s spouse Rashida Khanam and Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Rabab Fatima accompanied the Head of the State at the main part of the ceremony. Dressed in white-coloured pajama (trouser) and panjabi (long shirt) with black court, the President entered the programme venue at 12:33 pm (local time). Tuesday’s ceremony is most important among a series of enthronement-related functions that started in May this year.
The 59-year-old Emperor Naruhito ascended to the chrysanthemum throne on May 1, following the abdication of his 85-year-old father Emperor Emeritus Akihito.
Akihito was the first to be enthroned as the symbol of “the state and of the unity of the people” under the postwar constitution, said a foreign ministry spokesman.
He said the Emperor’s enthronement ceremony (Sokurei-Seiden-no-gi) represented the Japan’s over 1000 years old tradition, and at the same time, it was closely watched by the people around the world as the beginning of a new era led by a new generation of the imperial family.
