Yokohama: Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako attended the opening ceremony for an international conference on automatic control systems in the eastern Japan city of Yokohama on Sunday.

“Automatic control technology is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of our lives,” the Emperor said in an address at the ceremony for the 22nd World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control.

Advances in automatic control “will play a critical role in enhancing sustainability of our society” through self-driving cars, drones, robots, energy management, medical technology and biotechnology, he added.

The Emperor, who studies water issues as his lifework, expressed hope that automatic control will continue to “contribute to the technologies for appropriate and efficient distribution of water resources around the world.”

Water is essential to life on earth while water scarcity is “a common issue across the globe,” he said.

Sharing the awareness and the goals and proceeding through international collaboration is essential for solving various challenges facing the global community, Emperor Naruhito said, adding that he hopes the conference will mark “an important step” to this end and hold “fruitful discussions and exchanges.”

The opening ceremony was attended by about 2,100 people from around the world.

The conference is scheduled to run until Friday at the Pacifico Yokohama convention center.

JIJI Press