Japanese monkeys snuggle to keep warm at a zoo in Tonosho in Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan on January 24, 2023. (Photo by Kyodo Photo via Newscom/Alamy Live News)

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)

Women, dressed in traditional Japanese kimonos, cross a street in Kyoto, western Japan November 19, 2014. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Japanese–British singer-songwriter and model Rina Sawayama, date unknown. (Photo by Press Handout for SFTW)

Devotees take a holy bath during the Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu January 20, 2015. During the month-long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddesses and the miraculous feats performed by them. The devotees also go on pilgrimages to various temples, perform religious rituals, take a holy bath in the rivers and fast for a month, especially among women who believe fasting helps in their family's well-being or in getting them a good husband. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

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)

A man stands between thousands of paper lanterns, which were displayed and lit up the precincts of the shrine, where more than 2.4 million war-dead are enshrined, during the Mitama Festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan July 13, 2016. “Mitama” is a respectful word that means “the soul of a dead person” in Japanese, and this “Soul Festival” honors just that. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

The Soyuz TMA-11M capsule with the International Space Station (ISS) crew members Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Rick Mastracchio lands south-east of the town of Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan, May 14, 2014. The first Japanese to command a space mission and crewmates from the United States and Russia landed safely in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, wrapping up a 188-day stay aboard the International Space Station. (Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky/Reuters)