Jill Biden arrived in Japan on Thursday for the opening of the Tokyo Olympics on her first international trip alone as first lady, a two-day mission geared at generating enthusiasm for an event shadowed and shackled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Biden flew into the Yokota Air Base near Tokyo, where she was met by a Japanese diplomatic delegation before heading in a motorcade to the Akasaka Palace for a scheduled dinner with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his wife, Mariko Suga.
Her trip came as Covid-19 infections in Japan, fueled by the contagious Delta variant, hit a six-month high, according to The Associated Press.