Pedestrians look at “doll” model Lulu Hashimoto standing on the street during a photo opportunity for Reuters in Tokyo, Japan August 23, 2017. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Team Japan competes during the team free preliminaries of artistic swimming at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (Photo by Anna Szilagyi/AP Photo)

Viktoriia Onopriienko, of Ukraine, performs during the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around qualifier at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Friday, August 6, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Ashley Landis/AP Photo)

Hiroto Ishizawa of Japan falls while competing on the pommel horse during qualifications at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia on October 19, 2025. (Photo by Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)

Atsushi Abe and Yumi Adachi from Japan perform in the synchronised swimming mixed duet technical routine preliminary at the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan, Russia July 25, 2015. (Photo by Michael Dalder/Reuters)

A macro view of an ant taking a sip from a water droplet on the edge of a flower in Obihiro, Japan. Animal-Lover Miki Asai has gone a step beyond feeding bread to the ducks – by syringe-feeding water to tiny ants. The office worker from Obihiro City, Japan, squirts droplets near the tiny insects and then uses a macro lens to capture quenching their thirst. The amateur photographer started capturing these images near her house in July 2013 after spotting an ant struggling in the rain. (Photo by Miki Asai/Barcroft Media)

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 girl uses a mattress as a raft during the flood after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province, Laos July 26, 2018. At least 26 people were killed and over 3,000 people stranded after a hydroelectric dam built collapsed in southeastern Laos, destroying thousands of homes and leaving an unknown number of dead. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)