Kyodo News Service is hinting that the emperor and empress of Japan may stop in Hawai'i on their way home from a planned trip to Canada in July.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are scheduled to make an official trip to Canada, but their itinerary has not been finalized, said Hajime Kido, Japanese deputy consul general.

Officials in Hawai'i yesterday said they could not confirm if a visit is planned.

Wayne Ishihara, president of the Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce, said, "I would imagine that it would be something that people would all be very excited to be able to see the couple, if they did come."

Ishihara said he has not been informed of a visit but did hear of it on the radio yesterday.

A spokesman for Japan's Imperial Household Agency denied a Kyodo News report that the couple plan to visit Pearl Harbor.

"It is not true that they are going to visit Pearl Harbor," said Minoru Osawa, an agency spokesman, according to the Associated Press.

The emperor and empress last visited Hawai'i in 1994. A suggestion then about a possible visit to Pearl Harbor met with criticism from home that asserted such a visit would constitute political exploitation of the emperor, according to the Kyodo News. They did not visit Pearl Harbor.