Editor's note: Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary on Wednesday, marking six decades of a marriage that helped modernize the monarchy.

TOKYO - Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary Wednesday just three weeks before he abdicates his throne.

The couple met at a 1957 tennis tournament remembered as a "love match." Akihito and Michiko Shoda married on April 10, 1959, making him Japan's first future emperor to wed a commoner and someone who was Catholic-educated. Both are among many changes he brought to Japan's 1,500-year-old monarchy.

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