TOKYO—Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on April 10 just three weeks before he abdicates his throne.
The couple met at a 1957 tennis tournament remembered as a “love match.” Akihito and Michiko Shoda married on April 10, 1959, making him Japan’s first future emperor to wed a commoner and someone who was Catholic-educated. Both are among many changes he brought to Japan’s 1,500-year-old monarchy.
