Princess Aiko visits Laos on her first official trip abroad

Warm welcome: Princess Aiko (front left), the daughter of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, is welcomed upon her arrival at a hotel in Vientiane. — AP

JAPAN’s Princess Aiko has arri­ved in Laos for her first official overseas trip, state media said, a largely symbolic visit to Tokyo’s small beneficiary in South-East Asia.

The 23-year-old princess – Empe­ror Naruhito’s only child who is however not in line to the throne due to the Japanese royal family’s male-only succession rules – will spend the week in the communist country on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations.