[1]Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were rocked on Friday by an aftershock of the massive March 11 earthquake as they toured the country's ravaged northeast.
"Please stay calm. Are you all right?" 76-year-old Michiko was heard saying to evacuees at a shelter in Kamaishi in hard-hit Iwate prefecture during the tremor, according to Japanese media.
The empress was then seen taking the hands of 74-year-old Setsuko Matsuda, telling her, 'it is all right', at the shelter, a school where some 100 evacuees are sheltering.
The 9.0-magnitude quake and monster tsunami devastated the region's Pacific coast, leaving some 25,000 dead or missing and a nuclear power plant in danger of a catastrophic meltdown.
In Iwate alone, 4,360 people were confirmed dead and 3,299 others missing as of on Friday.
The royal couple had already toured devastated Miyagi on April 27 to comfort victims of the disasters and plan to visit Fukushima prefecture next Wednesday to meet people forced from their homes by the nuclear crisis.
In the wake of the disaster, the imperial family has been playing its constitutional role as a symbol of the nation's unity by consoling victims.
Akihito and Michiko earlier visited an evacuation centre in Tokyo and another nearby as well as tsunami-hit port cities in prefectures closer to the capital.
Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako are due on Saturday to visit a shelter in Misato, outside Tokyo, where residents from a town near the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant live.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/massshpjpgcropdisplayjpg-351