This photo taken on May 8, 2025 shows Shinbashi geishas rehearsing under the watchful eyes of instructors before the 100th edition of the Azuma Odori at the Shinbashi Enbujo Theatre in Tokyo. Geishas are a rare sight in modern Japan, but some of the few still working in Tokyo glide with measured steps across a wooden stage, offering a glimpse of a long-misunderstood tradition. (Photo by Caroline Gardin/AFP Photo)





Shrine maidens harvest plums at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine on May 23, 2025 in Kyoto, Japan. The plum will be sold to visitors at the end of the year as 'Ofuku-ume' after marinated in salt and dried. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)





People dressed as armored warriors compete in a horse race during the annual “Soma-Nomaoi” traditional horse festival in the Fukushima Prefecture city of Minamisoma, northeastern Japan, on May 25, 2025. (Photo by Kyodo News/Newscom via Avalon)





Women hand-planting seedlings with Gassho-style houses in the background on May 28, 2025 in Shirakawa, Gifu, Japan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)





This picture taken on May 31, 2025 shows Andie Ella, the founder of Milia Matcha talking to employees before the shop opening in Tokyo. The word matcha means “ground tea” in Japanese, and comes in the form of a vivid green powder that is whisked with hot water and can be added to milk to make a matcha latte. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)





People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





A customers holds his Nintendo Switch 2 game consoles as Nintendo starts selling the new consoles globally, at an electronics store in Tokyo, Japan on June 5, 2025. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)





Diners eat inside a in barbecue restaurant in Tokyo's Asakusabashi district on June 5, 2025. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)





A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) V-22 Osprey aircraft flies during a live-fire exercise at the East Fuji Maneuver Area on June 08, 2025, in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The annual drill took place after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stated in March that Japan should increase its defense spending to at least 3% of GDP as soon as possible, in response to pressure from the United States. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)





People participating in the “Tokyo Pride 2025” parade on June 08, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)





Performers dance during a parade held on the final day of a two-day summer festival hosted by six northeastern Japan prefectures at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 15, 2025. (Photo by Kyodo News cia Alamy Live News)





People walk through artificial mist to cool down on a hot day in Tokyo on June 19, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)





In this long exposure image, the H-IIA-50 rocket carrying a satellite to observe greenhouse gases and water cycle lifts off from the launch pad at JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Tanegashima Space Center on June 29, 2025 in Minamitane, Kagoshima, Japan. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)





Real estate consultant Kazutoshi Kodama conducts a “ghost investigation” at a house where an elderly woman had hanged herself seven years ago and her son died and went undiscovered for roughly 10 days last year, in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan, on May 28, 2025. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





A senior member (L) checks an honour guard standing in formation before the arrival of Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Ministry of Defence in central Tokyo on June 30, 2025. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP Photo)





A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Tokyo. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





This picture taken on June 6, 2025 shows manager of Jugetsudo tea store Shigehito Nishikida making a bowl of matcha in Tokyo. With its deep grassy aroma, intense colour and pick-me-up effects, the popularity of matcha “has grown just exponentially over the last decade, but much more so in the last two to three years”, the 40-year-old explained. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)





Sales clerks of the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi department store clad in yukata, a Japanese unlined cotton summer kimono dress, greet customers in Tokyo on July 7, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)





Tourists walk in front of a sand replica during the annual exhibition at Tottori Sand Dune Museum on July 09, 2025 in Tottori, Japan. The 16th exhibition at the Tottori Sand Dune Museum, themed “Traveling the World with Sand and Japan”, features 19 elaborate sand sculptures that depict the country's history and culture to commemorate the World Expo 2025. The exhibition will be on view until April 1, 2026. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)





A tourist cools off in front of a misting fan near a venue of the Hozuki-Ichi (Japanese lantern plant fair), at Sensoji temple, in Tokyo, Japan, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)