Japan's emperor, empress leave for Europe trip

TOKYO, May 21 (Reuters) Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko left for a visit to Britain, Sweden and the Baltic states today, their first trip abroad since Michiko's latest bout of a stress-induced illness that has plagued her throughout her marriage.

In March, Michiko, 72, was forced to rest for more than a week after suffering from intestinal bleeding.

But in a news conference last week with the emperor ahead of their 10-day trip, Michiko said she had completely recovered and did not think of demands on her time as ''pressure'' compared with the people's efforts to rebuild Japan after World War Two.

''Perhaps because there were still lingering remnants from those days that, though there were days in my new life after my marriage when I would be overwhelmed by the rigours of my position, with its great demands and expectations, I do not think that I viewed such a situation as being 'pressure','' she said.

''Nevertheless, I always carried with me a sad and apologetic feeling for not being able to fully meet people's expectations and demands. That is true not only of then, but now as well.'' Michiko broke tradition in 1959 when she became the first commoner to marry an heir to the throne and she won popular acclaim for raising their three children herself.

But she has suffered repeated bouts of ill health rumoured to have been caused by the demands of the powerful courtiers who organise the lives of the royal family.

In last week's news conference, Michiko said she dreamed of wearing a coat that made her invisible so she could visit exhibitions and bookshops without bothering those around her.

''What fun it would be to once again spend hours just browsing through the books,'' she said.

Michiko's plight has been mirrored in that of her daughter-in-law Masako, the wife of Crown Prince Naruhito, who has largely been absent from the public eye for more than three years due to a stress-induced mental illness.

The illness is blamed by many royal watchers on pressure to bear a male heir. Naruhito and Masako have one child, 5-year-old Princess Aiko.

The three took a rare overseas holiday in the Netherlands last year in what many saw as an attempt to help Masako recover from her illness.

But the emperor said last week that he and Michiko had never taken an overseas trip in a private capacity -- a comment some Japanese media saw as veiled criticism of the holiday.

Akihito, 73, and Michiko are making the trip to mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish scientist who devised a system for naming and classifying organisms.

In Lithuania, the royal couple will visit a monument dedicated to Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat during World War Two credited for saving thousands of Polish Jews by signing transit visas for them to escape the Nazis.

REUTERS SKB KN1433