Macaques huddle together for warmth at a hot spring in Nagano, Japan in the last decade of December 2023. Known as snow monkeys, the animals soak in the 40°C water every day during cold weather, spending their bathtime grooming, snoozing and playing on visitors’ camera tripods. (Photo by David Lazar/Animal News Agency)

Workers repair a damaged road, in the aftermath of an earthquake, near Anamizu, Japan on January 3, 202. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Cormorant masters and boatmen prepare sea cormorants for the nights “Ukai” on July 2, 2014 in Gifu, Japan. In this traditional fishing art “ukai”, a cormorant master called “usho” manages cormorants to capture ayu or sweetfish. The ushos of River Nagara have been the official staff of the Imperial Household Agency of Japan since 1890. Currently six imperial fishermen of Nagara River conduct special fishing to contribute to the Imperial family eight times a year, on top of daily fishing from mid-May to mid-October. (Photo by Chris McGrath/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)

Participants carry a portable shrine, or mikoshi, into the sea during a purification rite at the annual Kurihama Sumiyoshi Shrine Festival at Kurihama, Yokosuka city, south of Tokyo Sunday, July 27, 2025. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

A performer dressed as a zombie performs inside a “Zombie Shinkansen” bullet train bound for Osaka from Tokyo, inspired by the South Korean movie “Train to Busan” ahead of the Halloween season, Japan, on October 19, 2024. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

People are walking with umbrellas on a snow-covered street during the first snowfall of the year in Tokyo, Japan, on February 5, 2024. (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)