A surfer walks on the beach in front of the Hirono Thermal Power Station during the Iwasawa Surfing Games at Iwasawa beach on August 20, 2023 in Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. A total of 189 surfers gathered on the beach, about 20 km away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, for the competition. The competition is being held for the first time in 13 years after the nuclear disaster following the March 11, 2011 earthquake. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)





People perform “Eisa” dancing as part of celebrations during an annual festival in Okinawa, southern Japan, Tuesday, August 29, 2023. Family members perform various customs to honor the spirits of their ancestors that they say “are returning” during the three-day period called “Bon” in the lunar calendar in the Okinawa region. The festival culminates with an “Eisa” dancing contest among groups of young people from communities throughout the Okinawa islands. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)





This handout photo taken and received from the Cabinet Public Relations Office via Jiji Press on August 30, 2023 shows Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida posing as he eats seafood from Fukushima prefecture at the prime minister's office in Tokyo. Japan's prime minister ate what he called “safe and delicious” fish from Fukushima on August 30, days after wastewater was released from the area's crippled nuclear plant into the Pacific. (Photo by Handout via AFP Photo)





U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel looks at locally caught fish at the Hamanoeki Fish Market and Food Court during his visit to show his support for the water discharge from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, August 31, 2023. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





Mori Building Co. employees participate in a disaster drill at the Roppongi Hills shopping and office complex in Tokyo, Japan, 01 September 2023. Some 500 of Mori Building Co. employees participated to a disaster drill on “Disaster Prevention Day”, the day marking the 100th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake. Participants experienced and acquired skills in CPR, AED, first aid, emergency transportation and fire extinguisher operation. On 01 September 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake hit the Kanto area and destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama, killing more than 105,000 people. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA)





A figure of Hatsune Miku is displayed at an event at a Tokyo suburban hall, Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan, Friday, September 1, 2023, in celebration of her 16th birthday. Hatsune Miku has always been 16 years old and worn long aqua ponytails. She is Japan's most famous Vocaloid, a computer-synthesized singing voice software that, in her case, comes with a virtual avatar. (Photo by Yuri Kageyama/AP Photo)





Fans of Japan’s Vocaloid Hatsune Miku gather at a Tokyo suburb hall, Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan, Friday, September 1, 2023 to celebrate Miku’s 16th birthday with a concert and other events. (Photo by Yuri Kageyama/AP Photo)





Yoshimori Arakaki looks at a “sanshin” string instrument as he was repairing at his shop in Okinawa, southern Japan, Wednesday, September 6, 2023. Arakaki said he has been making and repairing the three-string music instruments for about 50 years. The sanshin, with snakeskin-covered body, are traditionally used in Japan's southern islands, such as Okinawa and Amami. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)





A H-IIA rocket carrying a small lunar surface probe and other objects lifts off from the Tanegashima Space Centre on Tanegashima island, Kagoshima prefecture on September 7, 2023. Japan launched on September 7 a rocket carrying what it hopes will be its first successful Moon lander, live footage from the country's space agency showed. (Photo by JIJI Press/AFP Photo)





People of the media wait ahead of a press conference of Japan's talent agency Johnny & Associates chief Julie K. Fujishima in Tokyo, Japan on September 7, 2023. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





Visitors are seen at the fifth stage on the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain 3,776 metres (12,388 ft), in Fujiyoshida, Japan on September 9, 2023. (Photo by Chris Gallagher/Reuters)





People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index and U.S. dollar/Japanese yen exchange rate at a securities firm Monday, September 11, 2023, in Tokyo. Stock prices were mostly higher in Asia on Monday as investors awaited U.S. inflation figures and China’s latest economic data. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





People navigate along a street in the Minami-Senju area of Arakawa Ward in Tokyo on September 12, 2023. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP Photo)





Newly appointed Children's Policies Minister Ayuko Kato, center, arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Japan Wednesday, September 13, 2023. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is shuffling his Cabinet and key party posts Wednesday in an apparent move to strengthen his position before a key party leadership vote next year, while appointing more women to showcase his effort for women's advancement in his conservative party. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





Minoru Suzuki and Sanshiro Takagi, wrestlers from Japanese professional wrestling promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling, fight inside Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya during a wrestling show in Japan on September 18, 2023, in this handout photo released by JR Tokai (The Central Japan Railway Company). (Photo by JR Tokai/Handout via Reuters)





Masato Okaue, 71, posses for a photograph in front of the handmade human-sized scarecrows in a store-room in the village of “Kakasi No Sato” on September 20, 2023 in Yasutomi, Japan. Masato Okaue, 71, has created human-sized scarecrows and placed them around his village to remind people that there are still 10 villagers who are 65 or older, who are still living there. Since 2010, he has set more than 130 scarecrows around farmlands, roadsides and abandoned houses to illustrate the old Japanese countryside and show that villages are not completely deserted. Due to dwindling birth rates and migration to urban areas, 8 houses are occupied among the 30 houses in the village and others are abandoned, which is emblematic of a similar phenomenon taking place across Japan. Japan's elderly population aged 65 and older reached a record high of 29.1%, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry statistics issued last Monday. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)





Handmade human-sized scarecrows sit on a bench while an empty bus drives past in the village of “Kakasi No Sato” on September 20, 2023 in Yasutomi, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)





A handmade human-sized scarecrow dressed up as a fireman climbs the ladder to illustrate the old Japanese countryside life in the village of “Kakasi No Sato” on September 20, 2023 in Yasutomi, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)





Handmade human-sized scarecrows pull a firewood cart to illustrate the old Japanese countryside life in the village of “Kakasi No Sato” on September 20, 2023 in Yasutomi, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)





A dancer demonstrates at the OptiTrack booth with its motion tracking device on the first day mainly for the media and businesses during the Game Show at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Thursday, September 21, 2023. The annual video game trade fair runs until Sunday. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)