Tokyo, May 5 (AP) Japan's Emperor Emeritus Akihito will undergo heart tests at a hospital after an unspecified problem was detected during a routine checkup, Japanese media reports said Monday.

The Imperial Household Agency did not answer calls to its office on Monday, a national holiday, to confirm reports by the Kyodo News Service and several other Japanese media.

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Akihito, 91, who is retired, is the father of Emperor Naruhito. He abdicated from the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019.

Kyodo said Akihito will be hospitalised, starting Tuesday, at the University of Tokyo Hospital. Other details were not immediately available. Akihito had heart bypass surgery in 2012.

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Akihito ascended to the throne after his father, Hirohito, died in 1989. No other emperor has abdicated in modern Japanese history. But Akihito has broken with other imperial tradition. He was the first emperor to marry a commoner, Empress Michiko. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)