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

Jan. 20

Kokomo Murase of Japan competes in a snowboarding slopestyle World Cup event in Laax, Switzerland. Meanwhile Mitsuki Ono claims her first gold medal of the season in the snowboarding halfpipe competition. (Kyodo)

Jan. 21

Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates after beating Adrian Mannarino of France to proceed to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. (Kyodo)
 
Rubble is all that remains in most parts of a famous market in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, where a large blaze broke out following a powerful earthquake that struck central Japan on New Year's Day. (Kyodo)
 

Jan. 22

Flowers are placed at the gutted site of the Wajima morning market to mourn victims of a major blaze that broke out following a powerful earthquake that struck central Japan on Jan. 1. (Kyodo)
 
All elementary and junior high schools in Ishikawa Prefecture's Suzu and Noto, the central Japan areas hit hardest by the Jan. 1 earthquake, are back in operation, in a sign that some aspects of life are returning to normal. Meanwhile, work is also underway to set up temporary housing for those displaced in Wajima. (Kyodo)
 
Hikan zakura, an early blooming cherry, begins to bloom for this season in the town of Tatsugo on Amami-Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. (Kyodo)

Jan. 23

A power-outage incident that hit a bullet train as it ran north of Tokyo results in cancellations for about 280 other shinkansen in eastern and central Japan, affecting some 120,000 people by the operator's estimation. (Kyodo)
 
Melissa Parke, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, visits the Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall in Tokyo. In an interview with Kyodo News, Parke says Japan's leaders should not fear the U.S. government's reaction and should move to recognize the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. (Kyodo)
 
The Bank of Japan maintains its ultraeasy monetary policy despite its increased confidence about the inflation outlook. BOJ chief Kazuo Ueda says the likelihood of hitting the inflation target of 2 percent is "gradually rising" and that negative interest rates will end when the goal comes into view. (Kyodo)

 

Jan. 24

Gloves donated by Major League Baseball two-way star Shohei Ohtani are on display at city hall in Beppu, Oita Prefecture. Following criticism on social media that they should immediately be sent to an elementary school for pupils to play with, the city has cut short the display period. Ohtani is donating three gloves to each of Japan's 20,000 elementary schools to promote the game of baseball. Each batch includes one lefty glove. (Kyodo)

 

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki holds talks with Defense Minister Minoru Kihara in Tokyo, the first such meeting between the two since the lawmaker became the nation's defense chief in September. The governor made a series of requests about PFAS, a group of artificial chemicals that have been found around U.S. military bases on the southern island. The chemicals are described as persistent organic pollutants, or forever chemicals, because they are nearly indestructible. (Kyodo)
 
People take shelter in Wushi County, Aksu Prefecture, in China's far-western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake hit the previous day, forcing about 12,000 people to evacuate. Temperatures hit around minus 10 C in the disaster-hit area, some 3,000 meters above sea level. (Kyodo)

 

Jan. 25

A Japanese court sentences Shinji Aoba to death for the 2019 arson attack on a Kyoto Animation Co. studio that killed 36 people, finding him mentally competent to be held accountable for his crimes. (Kyodo)

 

South Korea's Supreme Court rejects appeals by Japanese machinery maker Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. and upholds decisions by lower courts ordering the company to pay damages to South Koreans for wartime labor. (Kyodo)

 

Exhibit items associated with the works of prominent manga artist Go Nagai are hauled out of Go Nagai Wonderland Museum in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, after it was damaged in a large blaze following the magnitude-7.6 quake. Nagai's major works include Cutie Honey, Devilman and Mazinger Z. (Kyodo)

 

Jan. 26

Water is discharged during a fire drill at Horyu-ji temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site, in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture. In Japan, Jan. 26 is designated as fire prevention day for cultural properties, after a fire at Horyu-ji's Golden Hall the same day in 1949 destroyed historical murals there. (Kyodo)
 
Making of "kiccho" lucky willow branch decorations for Setsubun, signifying the arrival of spring in the old calendar in Japan, on Feb. 3 reaches its peak at Kumano Hayatama Taisha shrine in Shingu in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan. (Kyodo)

Back number:

Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Jan. 13-19

Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Jan. 6-12

Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Dec. 30-Jan. 5

Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - Dec. 23-29