令和6年6月25日（火）
国王王妃両陛下
温かい歓迎のお言葉を頂き、ありがとうございます。この度は、私と皇后を国賓としてお招きくださり、訪問の実現に向けて国王王妃両陛下を始め貴国の皆様から多大なる御配慮と御尽力を頂いたことに、心から御礼申し上げます。敬愛する故エリザベス2世女王陛下に御招待を頂いてから、新型コロナウイルス感染症の影響を受け、こうして約5年の月日を経て国賓として英国の地を訪れることができましたことは、誠に喜びに堪えません。
先ほど、国王陛下は、長きにわたる二国間の絆に触れられました。本日の午後には王室コレクションの我が国ゆかりの品を拝見し、改めて日本と英国の間で長きにわたり織りなされた交流の歴史を振り返ることができました。私自身、英国で学び、多くの人々と関わり合い、中でも王室の皆様には大変温かく接していただくなど、両国の交流の一端を担ってきたことを嬉しく、また、有り難く思っています。日英両国には、友好関係が損なわれた悲しむべき時期がありましたが、苦難のときを経た後に、私の祖父や父が女王陛下にお招きいただき天皇としてこの地を訪れた際の想いがいかばかりであったかと感慨深く思います。そして、計り知れぬ努力をもって、両国の未来の友好のために力を尽くしてこられた人々に、皇后と共に深い敬意と感謝の念を表します。
私の祖父は、1971年の晩餐会で、日英両国の各界の人々がますます頻繁に親しく接触し、心を開いて話し合うことを切に希望し、また、私の父は、1998年に同じ晩餐会で、日英両国民が、真にお互いを理解し合う努力を続け、今後の世界の平和と繁栄のために、手を携えて貢献していくことを切に念願しておりました。
現在、我々の社会は、ますます多様化・複雑化し、地球規模の各種課題に直面しており、世界全体で一層英知を結集しこれらの重要課題の解決に努める必要があります。そのような中、日英両国民の長年にわたる心を開いた話合いと真の相互理解への努力が実を結び、両国が連携・協力して世界を牽引している分野が、これまでも、またこれからも数多あるということを大変嬉しく思います。
例えば、日英の科学者の最先端の医学研究による世界への貢献です。ノーベル生理学・医学賞を受賞した山中伸弥教授の研究で知られるiPS細胞は、同賞を共同受賞した英国のガードン博士の先行研究の成果を踏まえたものであり、再生医療に革新をもたらしました。明日訪れる予定のフランシス・クリック研究所でも、がん研究やインフルエンザへの対応において日英の若手研究者を含む多くの関係者が協力し、新たな挑戦に取り組んでいます。
また、昨日は私的にテムズバリアを視察いたしました。テムズバリアは、1953年に起きた英国史上最悪の北海高潮被害（the 1953 North Sea Flood）を踏まえて建設されました。英国における高潮予測の発展には、日本人研究者の石黒鎮雄博士、日系英国人でノーベル文学賞受賞者の作家カズオ・イシグロ氏のお父上が重要な役割を果たされました。石黒博士は、英国の研究所に迎えられ、北海の高潮の正確で迅速な定量的予測を実用化しました。石黒博士がその研究から発展させたアナログ計算機は、カズオ氏によるとBBCドラマ「ドクター・フー」（Doctor Who）のタイムマシーン「ターディス」（TARDIS：Time And Relative Dimension in Space）の内側のようだったとも聞いています。石黒博士による電子工学と海洋科学の学際的イノベーションは独創的であり、今を生きる日英両国の研究者にも、時空を超えて大きなインスピレーションを与えているものと思います。
今回、国王陛下がパトロンを務めておられる王立キュー植物園を23年ぶりに再訪し、「ミレニアム・シード・バンク」による絶滅回避のための種子保存の取組などについて視察することを楽しみにしています。国王陛下が気候変動や生物多様性等の問題に情熱と危機感を持って取り組まれてきたことに敬意を表するとともに、日英の多くの人々がこうした環境問題に関心を持ち、諸課題の解決に力を尽くしてきていることに勇気付けられます。「ミレニアム・シード・バンク」には、東日本大震災の津波被害により高田松原で数万本の松が倒れる中で唯一残った「奇跡の一本松」と同じアイアカマツなどの種子が岩手県から寄贈されたと伺っており、強靱性や震災からの復興、そして日英友好の象徴として永く保存されることでしょう。
最新鋭の技術を駆使したパフォーマンス・ラボラトリーの視察など、王立音楽大学を再び訪問することも楽しみにしています。また、皇后と共にV&A（ヴィクトリア＆アルバート）子ども博物館を訪問し、日英の子供たちと交流して、両国の文化や芸術が、国や時代の枠を超えて子供たちにどのようなインスピレーションを与えているのか、直に感じられればと思います。さらには、皇后と私が留学し、一学生として英国の生活・文化を経験したオックスフォードの地を訪れ、国王陛下の母校のケンブリッジ大学ではありませんが、日英間の学術・研究・教育分野での協力や若い世代の交流の促進に少しでも貢献できればと考えています。日英関係は、長い年月をかけ世代を超えた人々の交流を通じて育まれてきました。今回の英国訪問を通じて、両国の友好親善関係が、次代を担う若者や子供たちに着実に引き継がれ、一層進化していく一助となれば幸いです。
我々の時代においては、国王陛下からも言及があったとおり、政治・外交、経済、文化・芸術、科学技術、教育など、実に様々な分野で日英間の重層的な連携・交流が加速しており、日英関係はかつてなく強固に発展しています。裾野が広がる雄大な山を、先人が踏み固めた道を頼りに、感謝と尊敬の念と誇りを胸に、更に高みに登る機会を得ている我々は幸運と言えるでしょう。今後とも日英両国がかけがえのない友人として、人々の交流を通じて真にお互いを理解し合う努力を弛みなく続け、永続的な友好親善と協力関係を築いていくことを心から願っています。
ここに杯を挙げ、国王王妃両陛下の御健勝と、日英関係の更なる発展と世界への貢献、そして両国国民の末永い幸せを祈ります。
In English
Address by His Majesty the Emperor at the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace on 25 June 2024
Your Majesties,
Thank you, Your Majesty, for your warm words of welcome. I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the invitation you have extended to the Empress and me for this State Visit, as well as for the tremendous consideration and efforts that you and the people of the United Kingdom have shown in making it a reality. In fact, the original invitation was issued five years ago by her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whom I greatly admired. Unfortunately, however, the visit had to be postponed due to the impact of COVID-19. It is truly our utmost pleasure that it is finally taking place now.
Your Majesty has just referred to our two countries’ longstanding ties. We also very much appreciate Your Majesties’ kindness this afternoon in showing us items from the Royal Collection related to Japan. We now have an even stronger sense of the deep significance of the exchange between Japan and the United Kingdom forged over so many years. I am personally pleased and also grateful to have played a part in the exchange between the two countries, having studied in the United Kingdom, during which time I interacted with many people and in particular was privileged to enjoy the very warm company of members of the Royal Family. There was previously the sad period during which the friendly relationship between our two countries suffered, and hence I am struck by profound feelings as I extend my thoughts to what was in the minds of my grandfather the Emperor Showa and subsequently my father the Emperor Emeritus as they set foot in this country after times of great difficulty, as emperors of Japan at the invitation of Her late Majesty. The Empress and I would like to express our deep respect and gratitude to those people who have dedicated immeasurable efforts to the friendship between our two countries extending firmly into the future.
At the State Banquet in 1971, my grandfather voiced his heartfelt wish for the people of both Japan and the United Kingdom in various walks of life to interact ever more closely and frequently and to talk to each other with open hearts. It was also my father’s sincere hope that our two peoples would continue to strive for true mutual understanding and to join hands in the cause of world peace and prosperity, as was expressed on the occasion of the subsequent State Banquet in 1998.
Today, our society is increasingly diverse and complex, facing various global challenges. It is necessary to address these critical issues by further amassing wisdom from around the world. Against this backdrop, I am extremely pleased that, in line with the fruitful dialogue between the peoples of our two countries conducted over the years with an open heart and with a quest for true mutual understanding, we have seen, and will continue to see, a myriad of areas whereby Japan and the UK lead the world in collaboration and cooperation.
One such area is the contribution that Japanese and British scientists have made to the world through cutting-edge medical research. Knowledge of iPS cells came to the fore through the research of Dr Shinya Yamanaka for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. This was based on the preceding research by Sir John Bertrand Gurdon, who was the joint winner of the Nobel Prize, and has led to significant innovations in regenerative medicine. At the Francis Crick Institute, which I will be visiting tomorrow, many people including young researchers from our two countries are working together and taking on momentous new challenges in the areas of cancer research and countering influenza.
Meanwhile, I made a personal visit yesterday to the Thames Barrier, built in the aftermath of the 1953 North Sea Flood. The development of the capacity to predict storm surges in the UK owes a great deal to the role played by a Japanese scientist, Dr Shizuo Ishiguro, the father of Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, the British novelist of Japanese extraction and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Dr Ishiguro was invited to join a UK research institute, where he developed a practical model for the accurate and timely quantitative prediction of storm surges in the North Sea. According to Sir Kazuo, the analog computing system that Dr Ishiguro developed based on his research looked like a TARDIS, a time machine from the BBC drama Doctor Who. I believe that the unique interdisciplinary innovation by Dr Ishiguro, cutting across electronic engineering and oceanographic science, continues to be a major source of inspiration for both Japanese and British researchers today, transcending time and space.
During this visit, I look forward to visiting for the first time in 23 years the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, of which your Majesty is a patron. There, I hope to see the efforts made by the Millenium Seed Bank in preserving seeds to avoid their extinction. May I pay my respect concerning the initiatives Your Majesty has taken, with both passion and a sense of urgency, in such critical areas as climate change and biodiversity. I am also encouraged that many people in both our countries are taking a keen interest in such environmental issues and are dedicating themselves to the resolution of these challenges. I have been told that seeds of Japanese red pine and other plants have been donated to the Millenium Seed Bank by Iwate Prefecture. They include those from the same type of tree as the “miracle pine tree”, which was the only one to survive the tsunami damage in the Takatamatsubara pine grove from the Great East Japan Earthquake, during which tens of thousands of pine trees were uprooted. I believe that the seeds will be preserved long into the future as symbols of resilience, recovery from the earthquake, and friendship between Japan and the UK.
I look forward to visiting again the Royal College of Music, where I can see its state-of-the-art Performance Laboratory, as well as to visiting with the Empress Young V&A, where we will have a chance to interact with children from both our countries and gain a direct sense of how our culture and art are inspiring children, transcending borders and time. We also plan to visit Oxford, sorry, maybe the wrong place for Your Majesty, where the Empress and I both experienced the life and culture of this country as students, and hope to make our humble contribution to promoting bilateral cooperation in the areas of academia, research and education, as well as exchanges between our younger generations. The relationship between Japan and the UK has been fostered through people-to-people exchanges over the years and generations. It would be a source of immense satisfaction if our visit to the United Kingdom could help to firmly pass on the friendship and goodwill between our two countries to the young people and children who in the future will take on the reins of our relationship and develop it even further.
Today, as Your Majesty also mentioned, the multi-layered collaboration and exchange between our two countries is accelerating in various areas including politics and diplomacy, the economy, culture and the arts, science and technology as well as education. Our bilateral relations have never been more robust. We can say that we are fortunate to have been given the opportunity to climb even higher on this grand, broad-based mountain, guided by the path trodden by our forebears, with a feeling of gratitude, respect and pride in our hearts. It is my sincere hope that both Japan and the UK, as friends like no other, will continue to make untiring efforts for true mutual understanding through exchanges of their people, thereby building an enduring relationship based on friendship, goodwill and cooperation.
I would now like to propose a toast to the good health of Your Majesties, to the further development of our bilateral relationship and its contribution to the world, and to the lasting happiness of the people of Japan and the United Kingdom.