High school calligraphy contest at Osaka expo

High school calligraphy contest at Osaka expo

Matsumoto Arigasaki Senior High School students perform calligraphy in a high school calligraphy contest at the World Exposition in Osaka on Aug. 21, 2025. The public school based in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, won the title.

High school calligraphy contest at Osaka expo

High school calligraphy contest at Osaka expo

Matsumoto Arigasaki Senior High School students perform calligraphy in a high school calligraphy contest at the World Exposition in Osaka on Aug. 21, 2025. The public school based in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, won the title.

Japanese tea ceremony master dies

Japanese tea ceremony master dies

File photo taken in April 2023 shows Sen Genshitsu, a former grand master of the Urasenke Japanese tea ceremony school, giving a lecture in Osaka, western Japan. He died on Aug. 14, 2025, at age 102.

Japan Casino School class

Japan Casino School class

OSAKA, Japan, July 31 Kyodo - Prospective dealers attend a lesson at Japan Casino School in Osaka, western Japan, on April 23, 2022. (Kyodo)

Crown prince at Osaka expo

Crown prince at Osaka expo

Japanese Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko (R) visit the Signature Pavilion at the World Exposition in Osaka on July 3, 2025. The couple were briefed about the pavilion made of wooden school buildings, designed and produced by film director Naomi Kawase (L). (Pool photo)

Crown prince at Osaka expo

Crown prince at Osaka expo

Japanese Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko (R) visit the Signature Pavilion at the World Exposition in Osaka on July 3, 2025. The couple were briefed about the pavilion made of wooden school buildings, designed and produced by film director Naomi Kawase (L). (Pool photo)

Japan's day at Osaka expo

Japan's day at Osaka expo

High school students perform calligraphy during a ceremony marking Japan's day at the World Exposition in Osaka on July 3, 2025.

[Breaking News]Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

OSAKA, Japan, June 20 Kyodo - Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025. (Kyodo)

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki (3rd from R) pose for a photo with high school and college students after a talk show with them at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Ex-Mariner Ichiro Suzuki at Osaka expo

Former Seattle Mariners outfielder and member of the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame Ichiro Suzuki (2nd from L) speaks during a talk show with high school and college students at the World Exposition in Osaka on June 20, 2025.

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

Band members pose for a photo after their group, composed of 12,269 school students, performed at the World Exposition's iconic Grand Ring in Osaka, western Japan, on May 11, 2025, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest marching band.

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

A band composed of 12,269 school students performs at the World Exposition's iconic Grand Ring in Osaka, western Japan, on May 11, 2025, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest marching band.

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

A band composed of 12,269 school students performs at the World Exposition's iconic Grand Ring in Osaka, western Japan, on May 11, 2025, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest marching band.

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

A band composed of 12,269 school students performs at the World Exposition's iconic Grand Ring in Osaka, western Japan, on May 11, 2025, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest marching band.

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

World's largest marching band at Osaka expo

A band composed of 12,269 school students performs at the World Exposition's iconic Grand Ring in Osaka, western Japan, on May 11, 2025, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest marching band.

World Exposition in Osaka

World Exposition in Osaka

A high school band team performs at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Pavilion at the World Exposition in Osaka on May 8, 2025, marking the expo's red cross movement day.

ANA expo plane arrives in quake-hit city

ANA expo plane arrives in quake-hit city

Elementary school students pose for a photo on April 19, 2025, in front of an All Nippon Airways chartered plane at Noto airport in Wajima, an Ishikawa Prefecture city hit by a massive earthquake in January 2024, after the plane with the design of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka arrived carrying 30 people who are planning to engage in volunteering work in the central Japan city.

Japanese novelist Kawabata

Japanese novelist Kawabata

IBARAKI, Japan, Oct. 11 Kyodo - Nobel laureate Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata delivers a speech on Oct. 26, 1969, during a ceremony marking the completion of a monument inscribed with his calligraphy at Ibaraki High School, from which he graduated, in Ibaraki in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan.

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

Students place flowers on an altar at Ikeda Elementary School in the Osaka Prefecture city of Ikeda, western Japan, on June 8, 2023, to remember the eight victims of a knife attack that occurred on that day 22 years earlier.

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

Photo taken on June 8, 2023, shows a monument at Ikeda Elementary School in Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, dedicated to the eight victims of a knife attack that occurred 22 years earlier on the same day.

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

Students place flowers on an altar at Ikeda Elementary School in the Osaka Prefecture city of Ikeda, western Japan, on June 8, 2023, to remember the eight victims of a knife attack that occurred on that day 22 years earlier.

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

Photo taken on June 8, 2023, shows Ikeda Elementary School in Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, where eight pupils were killed in a knife attack that occurred 22 years earlier on the same day.

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

Students carry flowers on their way to Ikeda Elementary School in Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, on June 8, 2023, the 22nd anniversary of a knife attack in which eight pupils were killed.

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

22nd anniversary of Osaka knife rampage

Students carry flowers on their way to Ikeda Elementary School in Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, on June 8, 2023, the 22nd anniversary of a knife attack in which eight pupils were killed.

Monks follow pilgrimage of Shingon founder as training

Monks follow pilgrimage of Shingon founder as training

OSAKA, Japan - Monks walk in Koya, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on May 30, 2014, as they proceed along a 55-kilometer pilgrimage that Kobo Daishi (774-835), founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism, is believed to have walked in his youth.

Monks follow pilgrimage of Shingon founder as training

Monks follow pilgrimage of Shingon founder as training

OSAKA, Japan - Monks read sutras in Koya, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, on May 30, 2014, as they proceed along a 55-kilometer pilgrimage that Kobo Daishi (774-835), founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism, is believed to have walked in his youth.

Monks follow pilgrimage of Shingon founder as training

Monks follow pilgrimage of Shingon founder as training

OSAKA, Japan - Monks depart from Kinpusenji, a temple in Yoshino, Nara Prefecture, on May 28, 2014, as they hit the road for a 55-kilometer pilgrimage that Kobo Daishi (774-835), founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism, is believed to have walked in his youth.

Club coach fired over student's suicide

Club coach fired over student's suicide

OSAKA, Japan - Officials of the Osaka City Board of Education bow at the outset of a press conference at the Osaka city hall on Feb. 13, 2013. The board the same day fired a 47-year-old basketball coach at a senior high school for alleged violence against a male student who committed suicide in December 2012.

PM Abe at upper house budget committee

PM Abe at upper house budget committee

TOKYO, Japan, March 24 Kyodo - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends the upper house budget committee in Tokyo on March 24, 2017, a day after the head of a nationalist Osaka school operator at the center of a growing political scandal testified in parliament that Abe donated 1 million yen to his organization.

Court rules Osaka "Kimigayo" ordinance constitutional

Court rules Osaka "Kimigayo" ordinance constitutional

OSAKA, Dec. 21 Kyodo - Yasutaka Okuno, an Osaka public school teacher, looks disappointed on Dec. 21, 2015, after the Osaka District Court rejected his claim that an Osaka ordinance forcing teachers to stand up while the national anthem "Kimigayo" is sung during school ceremonies is against the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of thought.

Lawyer helps Korean kids take pride despite hate speech

Lawyer helps Korean kids take pride despite hate speech

KYOTO, Japan - Lawyer Shiki Tomimasu holds leaflets in Kyoto, western Japan, on Dec. 2, 2014, detailing the July 2014 decision by the Osaka High Court ordering a group of anti-Korean activists that engaged in hate speech against a Korean school in Kyoto to pay damages to the school. Tomimasu says he hopes the leaflets, written in Japanese and Korean, will help Korean students relinquish their distrust against Japanese society and take pride in their culture and ethnicity.

Japanese school backpacks popular among foreigners

Japanese school backpacks popular among foreigners

OSAKA, Japan - A consumer electronics shop in Osaka, western Japan, displays "randoseru" leather backpacks for schoolchildren on Dec. 25, 2014, amid their great popularity among foreign tourists.

Mock Japan army notices passed out on war anniversary

Mock Japan army notices passed out on war anniversary

OSAKA, Japan - A member of a civic organization advocating women's rights and peace hands out mock "akagami" (red paper) army induction notices to senior high school students in front of Namba Station in Osaka, western Japan, on Dec. 8, 2014, the 73rd anniversary of the launch of World War II in the Pacific theater triggered by the country's attack on Pearl Harbor in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Kobe high schoolers visit tsunami-hit Ishinomaki school

Kobe high schoolers visit tsunami-hit Ishinomaki school

OSAKA, Japan - Students of Maiko high school in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, stand in front of Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on Aug. 27, 2014. They visited the school which lost many pupils in the March 2011 tsunami as part of an extracurricular activity at the high school offering a disaster prevention course, the only such course provided at a Japanese high school.

High schoolers check map in outdoor disaster education

High schoolers check map in outdoor disaster education

OSAKA, Japan - Students at the Kyoto branch of Tsukuba Kaisei High School check a map during an outdoor education program in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, on Oct. 9, 2014, seeking to identify people appearing in news photos taken after the Great Hanshin Earthquake that hit the western Japan prefecture in 1995.

Ikeda school certified as safe school under ISS program

Ikeda school certified as safe school under ISS program

OSAKA, Japan - Masataka Nonami (R), principal of Ikeda Junior High School, attached to Osaka Kyoiku University, holds a banner certifying the school as safe under the International Safe School accreditation program on Oct. 10, 2014, in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture.

High school students make cardboard models of "Gundam" robot

High school students make cardboard models of "Gundam" robot

OSAKA, Japan - Cardboard likenesses of robots from the popular "Gundam" Japanese animation series, produced by students at Higashiyodo Technical High School in Osaka, are displayed at the entrance hall of an office building in the western Japan city on Oct. 10, 2014, as part of an art event.

Cardboard models of 'Gundam' character displayed in Osaka

Cardboard models of 'Gundam' character displayed in Osaka

OSAKA, Japan - Cardboard likenesses of robots from the popular "Gundam" Japanese animation series are displayed at the entrance hall of an office building in Osaka as part of an art event on Oct. 10, 2014. The model robots were made by students at Higashiyodo Technical High School in the western Japan city.

Osaka high schoolers win this year's comedy duo title

Osaka high schoolers win this year's comedy duo title

OSAKA, Japan - A high school comedy duo called "Inaka-no Kuruma" or countryside cars, Ryoichiro Kisa (2nd from front R) and Chihiro Ota (2nd from front L) from Osaka, pose in Osaka on Sept. 21, 2014, after winning the 2014 high school "manzai" comedy duo championship final.

Osaka student cycles across N. America in 2 months

Osaka student cycles across N. America in 2 months

NEW YORK, United States - Takuya Shirasawa (L), a vocational school student in Osaka, western Japan, celebrates with his former teacher Yoshiharu Higa in New York on Sept. 15, 2014, after cycling from San Francisco to New York in about two months, emulating Higa's similar achievement.

Mie finishes 2nd in national high school baseball c'ship

Mie finishes 2nd in national high school baseball c'ship

NISHINOMIYA, Japan - Hayato Nagano, captain of Mie, receives the second-place plaque at the closing ceremony at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, on Aug. 25, 2014, after the team's 3-4 loss to Osaka Toin in the final of Japan's national high school baseball championship. (Pool photo)

Osaka Toin wins national high school baseball championship

Osaka Toin wins national high school baseball championship

NISHINOMIYA, Japan - Makoto Nakamura, captain of Osaka Toin, receives the champions' flag after the team's 4-3 victory over Mie in the final game of Japan's national high school baseball championship at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, on Aug. 25, 2014. (Pool photo)

Osaka Toin wins championship at Koshien

Osaka Toin wins championship at Koshien

KOSHIEN, Japan - Members of Osaka Toin High School baseball team celebrate as they defeated Mie Highschool 4-3 in the final of the 96th national high school baseball championship at Koshien Stadium, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan on Aug. 25, 2014.

Runners in costumes awarded at Osaka Summer Fun Run

Runners in costumes awarded at Osaka Summer Fun Run

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Sawada (2nd from R) in a high school uniform and her friends in birthday cake costumes are awarded for their fun costumes in Osaka, western Japan, on June 15, 2014, at the "Osaka Summer Fun Run."