Japan and Beyond: Week in Photos

Here’s a selection of Kyodo News photos taken in Japan and beyond this week.

Jissho Hasegawa, the chief priest of Daichi-in Temple in Chita, Aichi Prefecture, decorated January 15, 2022 to hold beans for “setsubun” (seasonal division), which marks the beginning of spring according to the Japanese lunar calendar. In early February, people in Japan throw beans to ward off demons and welcome good luck. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Thatched-roof farmhouses in the hamlet of Shirakawa-go, a World Heritage Site, are illuminated January 16, 2022 in Shirakawa Village, central Japan’s Gifu Prefecture. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Photo taken on Jan. 16, 2022 by a Kyodo News helicopter shows overturned and partially submerged boats at the port of Muroto in western Japan’s Kochi Prefecture, according to the country A tsunami hit the Pacific coast. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

People watch a silent prayer at a park in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, at 5:46 am on January 17, 2022, when the Great Hanshin earthquake hit the western Japan port city and surrounding areas 27 years ago, killing more than 6,000 people. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Several hundred activists march in Washington on January 17, 2022, a holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., urging the Senate to pass legislation protecting voters from racial discrimination. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Frost-covered trees, called “juhyo” in Japanese, are seen around Gozaisho Sanjo Park in the city of Komono, in central Japan’s Mie prefecture, on January 19, 2022. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Preparations for January 20, 2022 are underway at the Komaki Base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Forces in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan Drinking water airlifted to Australia to supply Tonga. In mid-January, an undersea volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami that severely damaged the South Pacific island nation. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo