Japan’s Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko will launch a five-day visit to Türkiye on Dec. 3 as the two countries are set to bid farewell to a year marking the centenary of ties between Ankara and Tokyo.
Imperial Household Agency, or Kunaicho of Japan, reported that the royal couple were invited by the Turkish government and will visit Ankara and Istanbul. They are expected to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 4 before leaving for Istanbul. In Istanbul, they will attend a commemoration ceremony for the sinking of an Ottoman frigate in 1890 off the coast of Japan.
The Ottoman Empire launched the Japan trip for Ertuğrul, which bears the name of the father of the empire's founder Osman, to Japan two years after Japan's Prince Komatsu paid his country's first official visit to Istanbul, which was the capital of the empire. The ship departed Istanbul in July 1889 with 609 crew members. After stopovers in Egypt, Yemen, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong and several Japanese cities, it arrived in Yokohama 11 months later. Osman Pasha, who led the Ottoman delegation, was received by Emperor Meiji and presented the emperor with a letter from Sultan Abdülhamid II and a medal. The frigate left Japan on Sept. 15, 1890, after the Ottoman delegation held talks with Japanese officials.
Adverse weather aggravated by a typhoon proved a challenge for the ship and it crashed on the rocks near Kushimoto on Sept. 16, 1890. Sixty-nine sailors aboard survived, but 550 others aboard died when the boat sank. The locals of Kushimoto rescued the survivors.
The tragic incident only served to strengthen ties between the two countries, a milestone in friendship lasting to this day.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War II, the two countries remained in touch and established diplomatic relations in the modern sense in 1924. Türkiye also established its first diplomatic mission in Japan in 1925. Political relations were upgraded to the level of Strategic Partnership in 2013. Japan celebrated 2003 as "Turkish Year" in Japan, while "Japan Year" in Türkiye was marked in 2010. 2019 was declared as "Turkish Culture Year" in Japan by both countries.
