Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako attended the coronation of the new Dutch king on Tuesday at a historic church with members of other royal families. Prince Willem-Alexander became the Netherlands' first king in more than a century after his mother Queen Beatrix abdicated following 33 years on the throne. In attending the ceremony, the 49-year-old Japanese crown princess, who has been struggling with a stress-induced illness for a long time, made her first official overseas trip in 11 years.

Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and former Namibian Prime Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab and Edgardo Angara, former Senate President of the Philippines and currently a senator, are among the 40 foreign nationals named as recipients of Japan's annual spring decorations, the government said Monday. Fillon, 59, Gurirab, 75, and Angara, 78, were selected for the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip officiated at a military ceremony in the Canadian city of Toronto on Saturday on the second day of his first major overseas trip since 2011. The 91-year-old spouse of the British monarch was on hand to present a new regimental flag to the Third Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, of which he is the honorary colonel-in-chief. The prince, who arrived in Canada on Friday, told a crowd of several hundred wellwishers that the regiment could be proud of its "enviable reputation for peacekeeping."

Spain's King Juan Carlos vowed Monday he would soon bounce back after the latest in a series of surgical operations, despite deepening scandals that have harmed his popularity. "I'll soon be back causing trouble," he joked as he stood without crutches in his first official appearance since surgery in March for a slipped disc -- his seventh operation in three years. Juan Carlos, 75, was jovial in front of the cameras as he received the poet Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald, latest winner of the top Cervantes Prize for Spanish-language literature, at the Zarzuela royal palace.