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)

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)

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)

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)

Three Japanese tourists had to abandon plans to drive to Stradbroke Island off the Queensland coast when their hire car became bogged in mangrove mud, on March 15, 2012 near Stradbroke Island, Australia. (Photo by Chris McCormack/Fairfax Media).

A visitor poses with a 3D art work during a Japanese Trick Art exhibition at a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, December 4, 2012. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

A model presents a creation by Japanese lingerie brand Peach John from its Autumn/Winter 2016 collection during Tokyo Fashion Week in Tokyo, Japan, March 15, 2016. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)