Duterte condoled with the emperor for his loss of the prince, who was the youngest brother of his father Emperor Hirohito. Mikasa was 100.
According to Duterte, the protocol officer advised him not to visit the emperor at this time because the royal family was in mourning.
“I respect that. I would ask for the same request if I were in his shoes,” he told reporters in an ambush interview in Yokohama.
Duterte’s state call on Empero Akihito would have been his last activity during his three-day official visit to Japan.