In Photos: The week in pictures
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Ninja performers pose for a photograph in a commemorative train on the newly nicknamed "Ninja Line" in the city of Iga, Mie Prefecture, in central Japan, on Feb. 22, 2019. (Mainichi/Kazuki Yamazaki)
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Yuichi Tsuda, project manager of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 space probe, center, and other team members pose for a commemorative photograph in front of a model of the explorer in Chuo Ward of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, on Feb. 22, 2019, after the probe successfully touched down on the asteroid Ryugu. (Mainichi/Naoki Watanabe)
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Professional wrestler Keiji Muto, right, hands a bouquet to Abdullah the Butcher during the latter's retirement ceremony at Ryogoku Kokugikan hall in Tokyo's Sumida Ward on Feb. 19, 2019. (Mainichi/Shin Yamamoto)
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A part of a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jet, which crashed into the sea, is seen with a Japan Coast Guard patrol boat in the Sea of Japan off Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan on Feb. 20, 2019. (Mainichi/Minoru Kanazawa)
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Nine-year-old Go prodigy Sumire Nakamura plays against top Taiwanese female player Joanne Missingham while sitting on her heels on a chair after taking her shoes off at the Nihon Ki-in (Japan Go Association) headquarters in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Feb. 20, 2019. (Mainichi/Toshiki Miyama)
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Actress Ayaka Imoto poses for a photograph with a baseball and a glove after she was appointed as the face of a PR campaign to support the 91st National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament, at a press conference at The Mainichi Newspapers Co.'s Tokyo Head Office in the capital's Chiyoda Ward on Feb. 21, 2019. (Mainichi/Koichiro Tezuka)
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Olympic minister Yoshitaka Sakurada waits in a room alone for the resumption of a House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, which was suspended due to opposition party protests over Sakurada arriving late, on Feb. 21, 2019. (Mainichi/Masahiro Kawata)
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Crown Prince Naruhito speaks during a press conference at his Togu Palace residence in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Feb. 21, 2019, two days ahead of his 59th birthday. (Mainichi/Junichi Sasaki)
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A prayer service with the Android Kannon "Mindar" is held at Kodai-ji temple in Kyoto's Higashiyama Ward in western Japan on Feb. 23, 2019. (Mainichi/Ai Kawahira)
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Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are applauded during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of His Majesty's reign organized by the Japanese government at the National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Feb. 24, 2019. (Pool photo)
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Mother elephant Shu Thein, left, and her daughter Nyein are seen at a naming ceremony ahead of their public debut at Sapporo Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo's Chuo Ward in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, on Feb. 24, 2019. (Mainichi/Taichi Kaizuka)
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Okinawans vote during a referendum on land reclamation work for the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko coastal district of Nago, in the city of Naha in the southernmost island prefecture of Okinawa on Feb. 24, 2019. (Mainichi/Toyokazu Tsumura)