Britain’s King Charles III welcomes the visiting Japanese emperor and empress

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III has welcomed the Japanese emperor and empress for a state visit offering the best in pomp and circumstance. The U.K. seeks to bolster its role as the most influential European nation in the Indo-Pacific region. Both countries look to each other as a source of stability and mutual reassurance at a time of potentially destabilizing global political change. Naruhito studied 18th-century commerce on the Thames as a graduate student at the University of Oxford some 40 years ago. The future emperor got a chance to experience life outside the palace walls, including taking part in pub crawls.