A member of the media has her photograph taken with an exhibit at Ghibli's Grand Warehouse during a media tour of the new Ghibli Park in Nagakute, Aichi prefecture on October 12, 2022. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)

This photo taken on November 6, 2023 shows people posing for photos next to the statue of “Hachiko” in front of Shibuya station in central Tokyo, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the legendary dog's birth this month. A century since its birth, the tale of the loyal companion who had waited at the Shibuya train station for its master to come home – not knowing he had already died – continues to inspire the public, who have made the statue a singular landmark at a glitzy hub of Tokyo's street culture. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP Photo)

Festival goer with phallus logo t-shirt during the Kanamara Matsuri Steel Phallus Festival at Kawasaki, Japan on April 2, 2017. The Kanamara Matsuri or Festival of the Steel Phallus is held on the first Sunday of April at the Kanayama shrine. The shrine celebrates a legend of a steel pen*s and was frequented by prostitutes who wished to pray for protection from sexually transmitted diseases. Visitors now wish for easy delivery, marriage and matrimonial harmony. Because of the large steel phallus the unusual festival has become a tourist attraction attracting many overseas visitors and is used to raise money for HIV charities. Phallus shaped candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a big parade are all part of the festival. (Photo by DELETREE/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman surrounded by South Korean national flags set up to celebrate the 66th Independence Day on August 15, 2011 in Seoul, South Korea. Korea was liberated from Japan's 35-year colonial rule in 1945. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A model displays a creation from fashion brand Dairiku by designer Dairiku Okamoto for the 2022 Autumn/Winter collection at Tokyo Fashion Week in Tokyo on March 19, 2022. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

Filipino students performs during the parade at the 125th Philippine’s Independence Day at Dubai World Trade Centre on June 10, 2023. (Photo by Leslie Pableo for The National)

A participant marches during the Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade, celebrating advances in LGBTQ+ rights and calling for marriage equality, in Tokyo, Japan on April 21, 2024. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

The Belgian photographer Anton Kusters spent two years photographing the Yakuza, Japan’s most notorious gang. He returned with some amazing images that he made into a book called “Odo Yakuza Tokyo”. (Odo means “the way of the cherry blossom” and is the credo of the Yakuza family he followed. Photo: An erotic danser picks up fake 2-dollar bills during a private dance with a Yakuza customer in a strip tease bar in Kabukicho, a bar which is controlled by the ODO family – 2010. (Photo and caption by Anton Kusters)