STOCKHOLM, May 21: Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Sweden on Monday, kicking off a 10-day tour of Europe that will take in the three Baltic nations and Britain, where they have faced protests in the past.

The imperial couple will visit Sweden until Thursday before heading on to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — their first visit to any part of the former Soviet Union. Their final leg takes them to Britain, where their last visit was marked by vocal protests from World War II veterans.

Arriving in Stockholm, Akihito, 73, and Michiko, 72, were met at Arlanda airport by Sweden’s 29-year-old Crown Princess Victoria and Culture Minister Lena Adelssohn Liljeroth among others, Japanese embassy officials said. The trip is the imperial couple’s first foreign tour since June last year when they went to Southeast Asia. —AFP