Participants dressed in ancient Japanese costumes take part in a parade at the Imperial Palace during the Sanno Festival in Tokyo, Japan June 10, 2016. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Japanese artist Sachi shows off her creation of a realistic 3D cat portrait, made by using felted wool, at her house in Sagamihara, Japan, January 21, 2022. (Photo by Akira Tomoshige/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)

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)

宇多田ヒカル (Utada Hikaru) –One Last Kiss. Utada Hikaru is a Japanese-American singer-songwriter and producer. By the end of the 2000s, Utada was deemed “the most influential artist of the decade” in the Japanese music landscape by The Japan Times. Utada's commercial success has made her one of Japan's top-selling recording artists of all time.

Japanese monkeys look relaxed as they soak in a hot spring at the Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden in Hakodate in Hokkaido, northern Japan, on January 14, 2022. (Photo by Kyodo News/Action Press via Reuters)

Japanese actress Aoi Yamada poses during a photocall for the film “Perfect Days” during the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 26, 2023. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP Photo)

Artists wearing Japanese traditional clown masks march during the First Konpira Festival at Kotohiragu shrine in Tokyo Wednesday, January 10, 2018. The shrine is dedicated to sailors and seafaring. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)