“A Hadaka Matsuri (“Naked Festival”) is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth (called fundoshi), sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar, or everyday, undergarments, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is held in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Japanese men wear loincloths as they splash about in freezing cold water during Saidaiji Naked Festival, at Saidaiji Temple on February 18, 2012 in Okayama, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

A Japanese girl poses in a costume at a Chara Fes (character festival) event on October 26, 2003 in Tokyo. Cosplay (costume play) is becoming popular among Japanese youths, whereby participants dress up as their favourite characters from comics, computer games and animation. (Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

Japanese women wearing kimonos take a selfie as they attend their Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony at Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo, Japan on January 14, 2019. Coming of Age Day is a Japanese holiday held every January to celebrate people who have reached 20 – the official age of adulthood in Japan. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

A reveller smiles as she walks in the rain at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain, June 28, 2015. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Commuters make their way through a flooded street after a heavy rain shower in Lahore on July 14, 2022. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

People walk in the rain in Hyderabad, India, Saturday, November 20, 2021. More than a dozen people have died and dozens are reported missing in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after days of heavy rains, authorities said. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

For her series “Japanese Whispers”, Belgian photographer Zaza Bertrand headed inside the intimate world of rabuhos – Japanese love hotels. Love hotels became popular in Japan from the 1960s onwards, due to a lack of privacy in many family homes. There are now around 37,000 of these hotels in Japan, allowing short daytime “rests” or overnight stays. (Photo by Zaza Bertrand/The Guardian)

Japanese Yuuka Hasumi, 17, and Ibuki Ito, 17, also from Japan, who want to become K-pop stars, perform at an Acopia School party in Seoul, South Korea, March 16, 2019. Acopia is a prep school offering young Japanese a shot at K-pop stardom, teaching them the dance moves, the songs and also the language. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)