Princess Kako of Akishino, the second daughter of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Japan, on Wednesday visited the Panathenaic Stadium or ‘Kallimarmaro’ in Athens, built for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. The princess is paying an official visit to Greece at Greek government’s invitation, to mark the 125th anniversary since Greece and Japan established diplomatic relations.

The president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Spyros Kapralos and the general secretary Emmanouil Kolymbadis gave Princess Kako a tour of the stadium and briefed her about unknown aspects of its history, from its construction and the organisation of the first modern-day Olympics to its evolution in recent history.

The tour continued to the Stadium’s Museum, where the Princess appeared impressed by the posters and the torches of the Olympic Games organised by Japan in Tokyo in 1964, in Nagano in 1998 and more recently in Tokyo, in 2021.