Search｜Photos & Images & Videos｜KYODO NEWS IMAGES INC

Preparations for 2026 Year of Horse

A giant "ema" votive plaque bearing an illustration of a horse is put up at Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in Nachikatsuura in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the start of the Year of the Horse in 2026.

E

Preparations for 2026 Year of Horse

A giant "ema" votive plaque bearing an illustration of a horse is put up at Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in Nachikatsuura in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the start of the Year of the Horse in 2026.

E

Preparations for 2026 Year of Horse

A giant "ema" votive plaque bearing an illustration of a horse is put up at Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in Nachikatsuura in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the start of the Year of the Horse in 2026.

E

Taiwanese tourists to Japan

Tourists from Taiwan pose for a photo in front of a statue of Ryoma Sakamoto, a famed 19th-century historic figure who played a key role in Japan's transition from feudal rule to modern statehood during the Meiji Restoration, in Kochi, western Japan, on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Taiwanese tourists to Japan

Tourists from Taiwan pose for a photo in front of a statue of Ryoma Sakamoto, a famed 19th-century historic figure who played a key role in Japan's transition from feudal rule to modern statehood during the Meiji Restoration, in Kochi, western Japan, on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Taiwanese tourists to Japan

Tourists from Taiwan listen to a guide in front of a statue of Ryoma Sakamoto, a famed 19th-century historic figure who played a key role in Japan's transition from feudal rule to modern statehood during the Meiji Restoration, in Kochi, western Japan, on Dec. 15, 2025. ==Kyodo

E

Chinese U.N. envoy

Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Fu Cong (front) attends a U.N. Security Council meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Japan Princess Kako at greenery event

Japanese Princess Kako attends an award ceremony for companies and organizations that contributed to urban afforestation on Dec. 15, 2025, in Tokyo.

E

Japan Princess Kako at greenery event

Japanese Princess Kako addresses an award ceremony for companies and organizations that contributed to urban afforestation on Dec. 15, 2025, in Tokyo. (Pool photo)

E

Japan Princess Kako at greenery event

Japanese Princess Kako attends an award ceremony for companies and organizations that contributed to urban afforestation on Dec. 15, 2025, in Tokyo.

E

Japan Princess Kako at greenery event

Japanese Princess Kako addresses an award ceremony for companies and organizations that contributed to urban afforestation on Dec. 15, 2025, in Tokyo.

E

Self-driving cargo tug testing begins at Haneda airport

A Japan Airlines cargo tug operates autonomously at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025. JAL, together with All Nippon Airways, began self-driving tests of the vehicles the same day amid a chronic manpower shortage.

E

Self-driving cargo tug testing begins at Haneda airport

A Japan Airlines cargo tug operates autonomously at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025. JAL, together with All Nippon Airways, began self-driving tests of the vehicles the same day amid a chronic manpower shortage.

E

Self-driving cargo tug testing begins at Haneda airport

An All Nippon Airways cargo tug operates autonomously at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025. ANA, together with Japan Airlines, began self-driving tests of the vehicles the same day amid a chronic manpower shortage.

E

Self-driving cargo tug testing begins at Haneda airport

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2025, shows All Nippon Airways (L) and Japan Airlines self-driving cargo tugs at Haneda airport in Tokyo. The two airlines began self-driving tests of the vehicles the same day amid a chronic manpower shortage.

E

Shuri Castle under reconstruction

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2025, shows the south-side corridor that is connected to the main hall (back) of Shuri Castle, now under reconstruction, in Naha in the southern Japan island prefecture of Okinawa. The corridor, together with the west-side corridor and the main hall, is to be completed in the autumn of 2026, seven years after fire gutted the World Heritage-listed castle in October 2019.

E

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun holds a press conference in Beijing on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun holds a press conference in Beijing on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Shuri Castle under reconstruction

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2025, shows the south-side corridor that is connected to the main hall (back) of Shuri Castle, now under reconstruction, in Naha in the southern Japan island prefecture of Okinawa. The corridor, together with the west-side corridor and the main hall, is to be completed in the autumn of 2026, seven years after fire gutted the World Heritage-listed castle in October 2019.

E

Shuri Castle under reconstruction

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2025, shows the south-side corridor that is connected to the main hall (back) of Shuri Castle, now under reconstruction, in Naha in the southern Japan island prefecture of Okinawa. The corridor, together with the west-side corridor and the main hall, is to be completed in the autumn of 2026, seven years after fire gutted the World Heritage-listed castle in October 2019.

E

Shuri Castle under reconstruction

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2025, shows the south-side corridor that is connected to the main hall (back) of Shuri Castle, now under reconstruction, in Naha in the southern Japan island prefecture of Okinawa. The corridor, together with the west-side corridor and the main hall, is to be completed in the autumn of 2026, seven years after fire gutted the World Heritage-listed castle in October 2019.

E

Snowboarding: Ayumu Hirano

Ayumu Hirano, the 2022 Beijing Olympic men's snowboard halfpipe gold medalist, attends an event in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026. Hirano won the World Cup opener in the current season in China earlier in the month.

E

Snowboarding: Ayumu Hirano

Ayumu Hirano, the 2022 Beijing Olympic men's snowboard halfpipe gold medalist, attends an event in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026. Hirano won the World Cup opener in the current season in China earlier in the month.

E

Jimmy Lai's son meets press after conviction

Sebastien Lai, the son of detained pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, holds a press conference in London on Dec. 15, 2025, after a Hong Kong court earlier in the day found the 78-year-old guilty of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-decreed national security law.

E

Jimmy Lai's son meets press after conviction

Sebastien Lai, the son of detained pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, holds a press conference in London on Dec. 15, 2025, after a Hong Kong court earlier in the day found the 78-year-old guilty of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-decreed national security law.

E

New Year's greeting cards

A woman posts New Year's greeting cards in a special mailbox at the Tokyo central post office in Tokyo's Marunouchi district on Dec. 15, 2025, as post offices across Japan begin accepting the "nengajo" cards for 2026.

E

New Year's greeting cards

A woman posts New Year's greeting cards in a special mailbox at the Tokyo central post office in Tokyo's Marunouchi district on Dec. 15, 2025, as post offices across Japan begin accepting the "nengajo" cards for 2026.

E

Hong Kong court ruling on Jimmy Lai

Security officers stand on guard in front of the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building in Hong Kong on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the ruling in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

E

Hong Kong court ruling on Jimmy Lai

Security officers stand on guard in front of the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building in Hong Kong on Dec. 15, 2025, ahead of the ruling in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

E

Nobel laureate Kitagawa returns to Japan

Kyoto University professor Susumu Kitagawa, a co-winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry, meets the press upon arriving at Osaka airport in western Japan on Dec. 15, 2025, following the award ceremony in Stockholm.

E

Nobel laureate Kitagawa returns to Japan

Kyoto University professor Susumu Kitagawa, a co-winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry, meets the press upon arriving at Osaka airport in western Japan on Dec. 15, 2025, following the award ceremony in Stockholm.

E

Nobel laureate Kitagawa returns to Japan

Kyoto University professor Susumu Kitagawa, co-winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry, meets the press with his Nobel medal in hand upon arriving at Osaka airport in western Japan on Dec. 15, 2025, following the award ceremony in Stockholm.

E

Hong Kong court ruling on Jimmy Lai

People queue to enter the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building in Hong Kong on Dec. 15, 2025, for the ruling in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

E

Japan PM Takaichi in parliament

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers a question at a House of Councillors Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Japan PM Takaichi in parliament

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi answers a question at a House of Councillors Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Japan PM Takaichi in parliament

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (front) attends a House of Councillors Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

Japan PM Takaichi in parliament

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a House of Councillors Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Dec. 15, 2025.

E

A-bomb survivor Sasamori

Photo taken on July 29, 2022, shows a portrait of Shigeko Sasamori, a survivor of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city of Hiroshima who underwent reconstructive surgery for her scars in the United States. The New York Times reported on Jan. 2, 2025, that she died on Dec. 15, 2024, at her home in Marina del Rey, California. She was 92.