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Report: Japan’s Former Empress Michiko Discharged after Surgery

Japan's former empress Michiko arrives to mark the 110th anniversary of the death of the wife of former emperor Meiji, former empress dowager Shoken who died on April 9, 1914 at the age of 64, at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on April 9, 2024. (AFP)
Japan's former empress Michiko arrives to mark the 110th anniversary of the death of the wife of former emperor Meiji, former empress dowager Shoken who died on April 9, 1914 at the age of 64, at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on April 9, 2024. (AFP)
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Report: Japan’s Former Empress Michiko Discharged after Surgery

Japan's former empress Michiko arrives to mark the 110th anniversary of the death of the wife of former emperor Meiji, former empress dowager Shoken who died on April 9, 1914 at the age of 64, at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on April 9, 2024. (AFP)
Japan's former empress Michiko arrives to mark the 110th anniversary of the death of the wife of former emperor Meiji, former empress dowager Shoken who died on April 9, 1914 at the age of 64, at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on April 9, 2024. (AFP)

Japan's 89-year-old former empress Michiko left hospital Sunday after having surgery for a broken thigh, local media reported.

Michiko, the mother of Emperor Naruhito, fell on October 6 at her Tokyo residence and was admitted to hospital the next day after doctors diagnosed a fracture of the right femur.

She left hospital Sunday afternoon, local media said.

Officials at Imperial Household Agency could not be reached for comment, but an official previously told AFP that her treatment had been successful.

Michiko and her husband -- former emperor Akihito, 90 -- are credited with modernizing the tradition-bound monarchy and bringing it closer to the public.

The first commoner to marry an imperial heir in Japan, Michiko gave birth to Naruhito in 1960. Her second son, Prince Akishino, was born in 1965.

In 2019, Akihito, at the age of 85, became Japan's first monarch to abdicate in two centuries.

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China’s First Atmospheric Monitoring Station in Antarctica Begins Operations

Penguins are seen on an iceberg as scientists investigate the impact of climate change on Antarctica's penguin colonies, on the northern side of the Antarctic peninsula, Antarctica January 15, 2022. (Reuters)
Penguins are seen on an iceberg as scientists investigate the impact of climate change on Antarctica's penguin colonies, on the northern side of the Antarctic peninsula, Antarctica January 15, 2022. (Reuters)
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China’s First Atmospheric Monitoring Station in Antarctica Begins Operations

Penguins are seen on an iceberg as scientists investigate the impact of climate change on Antarctica's penguin colonies, on the northern side of the Antarctic peninsula, Antarctica January 15, 2022. (Reuters)
Penguins are seen on an iceberg as scientists investigate the impact of climate change on Antarctica's penguin colonies, on the northern side of the Antarctic peninsula, Antarctica January 15, 2022. (Reuters)

China said its first atmospheric monitoring station in Antarctica started operations this week, a move aimed at helping observe changes on the southern continent and supporting the global response to climate change.

Like the United States, China has been expanding its presence in Antarctica and in the Arctic to explore polar resources.

The Zhongshan National Atmospheric Background Station will conduct "continuous and long-term operational observations of concentration changes in Antarctic atmospheric components," the official Xinhua news agency quoted China's Meteorological Administration as saying.

The station is located in Larsmann Hills in East Antarctica.

Polar regions are "amplifiers" of global climate change, said Ding Minghu, director of the Institute of Global Change and Polar Meteorology at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences.

He said the station's observation data would have "unique geographical advantages and scientific value" which would aid the study of the impact of human activities on the environment.

China in February opened its Ross Sea scientific research station in Antarctica. It also has five other research stations in Antarctica that were built between 1985 and 2014.