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Kikuchi Seisakusho Co. is hardly a household name, but Emperor Akihito knew all about the small precision parts manufacturer when he was making preparations for a tour of areas devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Within two months of the disaster, the emperor and Empress Michiko visited the three most seriously affected prefectures in the Tohoku region, along with four other prefectures that took in thousands of evacuees.
After his tour of Fukushima Prefecture in May 2011, many people probably assumed he would not make more disaster-related visits.
However, the following year, the trips continued even after Akihito underwent coronary artery bypass surgery in February 2012.
The imperial couple visited Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, in May 2012 and the cities of Ofunato and Rikuzentakata in neighboring Iwate Prefecture in July the following year.
They visited Fukushima twice after 2011, demonstrating their eagerness to ascertain firsthand how rebuilding efforts were progressing.
In October 2012, they visited Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture to observe work to remove ground soil contaminated by radiation. Even then, the imperial couple did not don protective clothing.
In July 2013, they visited Fukushima city and Iitate, a village that two years previously on April 22 was designated for evacuation because of its proximity to the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Mayor Norio Kanno got the government to agree to exempt certain areas from the designation.
It meant that a retirement home, along with eight local companies, could continue to operate. Employees at those enterprises commuted to Iitate from outside areas.
Around June 2013, Iitate village government officials got word that the imperial couple wanted to visit. The request from the Imperial Household Agency was routed through the Fukushima prefectural government.
Kanno, 67, was stunned when an agency official said the couple wanted to pay a courtesy call on Kikuchi Seisakusho, which had factories in the village.
"I was very surprised that they knew the name of a company like Kikuchi Seisakusho," he said.
Kikuchi Seisakusho, with about 400 employees overall, was established by Isao Kikuchi, 70, in Hachioji, western Tokyo. Kikuchi hails from Iitate. Six of the company's 11 factories are located in Iitate because Kikuchi's mission is to foster skilled personnel in his hometown.
The natural disasters notwithstanding, Kikuchi Seisakusho was listed on the Jasdaq exchange for emerging companies in October 2011. The following year the company built a new factory in Kawauchi, which had lobbied Kikuchi Seisakusho to build a facility to provide local employment.
The emperor and empress arrived on July 22, 2013. Kanno was told by a chamberlain, "A year has already passed since their majesties first expressed their desire to visit Iitate."
The imperial couple did not arrive unprepared. When they met with young factory workers, they asked pertinent questions, such as their areas of responsibility and details about their daily commute.
While many of the employees are residents of Iitate, a good number have been commuting from outside of the village after the Fukushima nuclear accident.
The imperial couple observed a demonstration of a "gamma camera" that measures radiation levels and displays readings on a monitor. Kikuchi Seisakusho was involved in the development of the device.
Akihito said, "With such equipment, decontamination work will surely proceed much more effectively."
As they were leaving the factory, Michiko said to Kikuchi, "We are praying that Iitate will return to the way it was as quickly as possible."
In 2011, when the imperial couple embarked on their grinding itinerary after the natural disasters, Akihito was 77 and Michiko was 76. Neither of them was in the best of health.
In June 2012, when Shingo Haketa, 72, held a news conference to mark his retirement as grand steward, he said his most memorable recollections during his tenure were from the visits by the imperial couple to console disaster victims.
"As I accompanied their majesties on the visits, I felt the deep feelings they held toward the victims who experienced such tragedy during the serious disasters," he said.
During visits within Japan and abroad by imperial family members, locations invariably are decided on by the local community and the host government.
Masahiro Sato, a former deputy grand chamberlain, explained that Akihito generally left decisions about where he would go up to local government officials.
"The fundamental stance of his majesty until now was to express his sincerity to the location being visited by going to those areas where the hosts want him to see, rather than go to locations that he wants to visit," Sato, 73, said.
However, the visits in 2011 and beyond to the disaster-stricken areas came about after Akihito made known his strong desire to visit specific areas. Those visits materialized after Imperial Household Agency officials first approached the local governments.
Takeshi Hara, 51, a professor of history at Meiji Gakuin University, who is knowledgeable about the working of the imperial family, said: "A tradition of the imperial family has been to visit victims of natural disasters and war. In 1923, Empress Teimei visited victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake. After the end of World War II, Emperor Showa traveled all over Japan to encourage the people after the nation's defeat."
Hara said he was reminded of an argument made by the industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa after the Great Kanto Earthquake, the gist of which was that natural disasters were a result of the heavens expressing disappointment in the ruler, a form of the "mandate of heaven" that has a long history in China.
"The emperor may feel that he is responsible for the natural disasters," Hara said. "I feel that the two sides to the same coin can be seen in the earnest way the emperor prays to the gods in religious ceremonies for peace for the people as well as in his visits to disaster victims to offer his personal condolences."
The imperial couple also invariably expressed their gratitude to those who were involved in providing relief to disaster victims. That included members of the Self-Defense Forces, police, firefighters and local government workers.
Makoto Watanabe, 78, a former grand chamberlain, said: "I think they were expressing their gratitude on behalf of the disaster victims as well as all Japanese people. It may be an expression of various emotions emerging from their entirety."
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The previous installments of this series are available at:
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