Japan’s former empress Michiko, 89, to have surgery after breaking leg in fall

Japan’s 89-year-old former empress Michiko, the mother of Emperor Naruhito, will undergo surgery after falling at home and breaking her right leg, the imperial household said on Monday.

Michiko “fell at her residence, and felt pain, so was scheduled for a check-up at hospital” on Monday, said imperial household agency spokesman Katsuyoshi Nakamura.

Another spokesman, Kazuhiro Jibuki said that she will have surgery on Tuesday at the University of Tokyo Hospital after doctors found a fracture of the right femur, confirming the latest local media reports.

It is her first hospitalisation since 2019 when Michiko, who turns 90 on October 20, had surgery after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.

Michiko and her husband, former Emperor Akihito, are known for modernising the tradition-bound monarchy and bringing it closer to the public.

The first commoner to marry an imperial heir in Japan, Michiko was born in Tokyo in 1934 and attended the exclusive all-girls Christian Sacred Heart School before studying English literature at its university.