Here is a selection of Kyodo News photos taken this week in Japan and beyond.
April 13
Visitors at Arakurayama Sengen Park in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture enjoy a perfect alignment of cherry blossoms in full bloom, a five-story red pagoda, and a snow-capped Mt. Fuji. (Kyodo)
Japan sweeps Kazakhstan in their Billie Jean King Cup tennis qualifier in dramatic fashion, clinching a place in the team event's 12-team finals to be played in November in Seville, Spain. Naomi Osaka is among the five players of the Japan team, with Ai Sugiyama serving as captain. (Kyodo)
With exactly one year to go until its opening, preparations for the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka are gathering pace with multiple nations breaking ground for self-built pavilions in recent months, though concerns linger over a lack of public enthusiasm. (Kyodo)
April 14
Crowds gather to watch doll shows performed on colorful floats during the Spring Takayama Festival in Takayama, a city in the central Japan prefecture of Gifu. (Kyodo)
Shrine attendants, known as "miko," dance in front of a waterfall at the World Heritage-listed Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama prefecture, during a ritual to pray for a good harvest. (Kyodo)
The U.N. Security Council holds an emergency meeting, at Israel's request, to discuss an Iranian missile and drone attack targeting Israel over the weekend. (Kyodo)
April 15
The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, a popular sightseeing route that runs through the Tateyama mountain range in central Japan and famous for its tall snow walls along the way, opens for this year's tourist season. (Kyodo)
A rehearsal for the Paris Olympic flame lighting ceremony is held in Olympia, Greece. (Kyodo)
People visit Mansu Hill in Pyongyang to offer flowers as North Korea marks the 112th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder Kim Il Sung. (Kyodo)
April 16
South Korea marks the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the Sewol ferry with memorial events at various locations, including one in Mokpo where the ferry is kept as a reminder of the incident. The April 2014 disaster off the island of Jindo claimed 304 lives, including 250 high school students on a school trip from Ansan near Seoul. (Kyodo)
Japan overcome an early red card to beat China 1-0 in their group-stage opener at the under-23 Asian Cup men's football tournament, which serves as the qualifying event for this summer's Paris Olympics. (Kyodo)
April 17
Signs and decorations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, including the Olympic rings, are seen on the walls of the Hotel de Ville City Hall in Paris, France, with 100 days to go until the Olympic opening ceremony. (Kyodo)
Shohei Ohtani goes for 3-for-4 in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2-0 loss against the Washington Nationals to tie for most hits this season in Major League Baseball. (Kyodo)
April 18
Families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s seek assistance from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to resolve the long-standing issue, noting that the abductees' parents are aging. (Kyodo)
Tombstones in Ainan in Ehime Prefecture are seen in a collapsed state after a magnitude of 6.6 hit a wide area of western Japan the previous night. (Kyodo)
A Japanese court orders a chemical maker to pay 4 million yen ($26,000) each to 26 unrecognized sufferers of the Minamata mercury-poisoning disease, while dismissing claims against the government. The mercury contamination occurred in Niigata Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The disease was first formally acknowledged in 1956 in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, in southwestern Japan. (Kyodo)
April 19
A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft takes off from the GSDF Camp Metabaru in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan. (Kyodo)
Kurobe Gorge Railway's trolley sightseeing train crosses a steel bridge in Kurobe in Toyama Prefecture, central Japan. The railway resumed operations on a partial route after a nearly five-month suspension during the winter. (Kyodo)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield reads out a message after signing a guestbook at Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, southwestern Japan. (Kyodo)
Back number:
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - April 6-12
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - March 30-April 5
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - March 23-29
Japan and beyond: Week in Photos - March 16-22
