People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus wait to walk across a traffic intersection in Osaka, western Japan, Thursday, November 26, 2020. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)
Retired Mongolian-born “yokozuna” wrestler Hakuho (far L), who now goes by the name Miyagino, watches as participants (R) try to push out Japanese wrestler Hakuoho (C) during a sumo class for youngsters on the sidelines of the 14th Hakuho Cup, a competition for young sumo wrestlers from elementary and middle school, at the Kokugikan arena in the Ryogoku area of Tokyo on February 12, 2024. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP Photo)
A woman takes pictures with the Kawazu cherry blossom trees, one of the earliest blooming cherry blossoms in Japan, in Tokyo's Sumida district on March 11, 2024. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)
Hideki Tokoro, president of whaling company Kyodo Senpaku, boards Japan's new whaling mothership, the Kangei Maru, following the ship's launch ceremony at a port in Shimonoseki city, Yamaguchi prefecture on May 21, 2024. The nearly 9,300-tonne ship set sail on its maiden hunting voyage on May 21, heralding a new era for the controversial practice defended by the government as an integral part of national culture. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)
Two women in traditional kimonos wear face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as they visit the Sensoji temple in Tokyo on Friday, August 7, 2020. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)
Japanese women wearing “yukata” casual summer kimono take selfies at Asakusa district in Tokyo, Japan, 13 September 2020. Asakusa is one of Tokyo's most-visited areas and is usually crowded with tourists. In Japan, the numbers of visitors from abroad fell by 99.9 percent from a year earlier in July due to the ban for entries of foreign visitors amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)
A cosplayer dressed as a “remote worker” with “corporate slave” written on his glasses poses for a photo on New Year's Eve at Comiket, the largest comic market that had been postponed for two years because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan December 31, 2021. (Photo by Androniki Christodoulou/Reuters)