Royal has breast cancer completely removed

Empress Emerita Michiko of Japan has had her breast cancer completely removed after undergoing surgery earlier this month.

The 84-year-old Japanese royal was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer in August following a biopsy, after doctors found a concerning lump in her left breast in July.

In a bid to remove the cancer, surgeons and staff from Shizuoka Cancer Centre and the University of Tokyo Hospital performed surgery on the Empress on September 8, hoping to prevent the disease from worsening.

Now she has received positive news, the Empress being informed on Friday that she was cancer-free and the cells found in her chest had not moved to other parts of her body.

The cancer removed was around 1cm in diameter, and the Empress has since decided not to undergo follow-up radiation therapy, as the disease is unlikely to return.

Following her surgery, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, 85, her husband, thanked the head of the University of Tokyo Hospital and the doctors who operated on the Empress for their work.

Emperor Emeritus Akihito abdicated the Japanese throne in April this year and was succeeded by his and the Empress' eldest son, Naruhito, after reigning together for more than 30 years.

He met the Empress at a tennis court in 1957 when they were in their twenties and though she came from a wealthy family, she was still regarded as a commoner.

She was also a Roman Catholic, a religious minority in Japan, and several members of the Japanese nobility opposed the couple's engagement when it was announced in 1958.

The pair wed the following year and the public came to adore the young Empress, affectionately known as "Mitchi", who became a symbol of modernisation and democratisation in Japan.

Her wedding to the then-Crown Prince was the first to ever be made available for public viewership in Japan, with sections of the ceremony televised to more than 15 million viewers.