Emperor, Empress attend tree planting festival online

Jiji Press

17:58 JST, June 5, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The Emperor and Empress attended the 72nd National Tree Planting Festival in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, online from the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Sunday.

Speaking to the audience in the Koka venue, the Emperor expressed hope that activities to protect forests and nurture water resources through cooperation among many people will spread from Shiga to the rest of Japan and be passed on to future generations.

Attending this year’s event from a driveway of the Imperial Residence, the couple planted cedar and Japanese maple saplings into wooden boxes containing soil and sowed Japanese black pine and other seeds.

The boxes will be transported to Shiga so that the trees will be planted there. The Japanese maple is Shiga’s prefectural tree, while the cedar is main produce of the local forestry industry.

The couple attended the annual event remotely for the second straight year.