Hundreds reach out to catch lucky beans at Japan's annual festival

Описание: (3 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo, Japan - 3 February 2026
1. Various of bean throwing event, UPSOUND (Japanese) "Evil sprits out, good fortune in."
2. SOUNDBITE (Japanese)  Naomi Oshino, a participant known as "fuku onna"
"There has not been much happy news recently. I would like to spread the fortune and happiness as a fuku onna by throwing the beans to people who have come."
3. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) name not provided, man in his 60s from Chiba Prefecture:
"Not to get injured or sick. That's all I would ask for."
4. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) no names provided, woman in her 60s from Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture:
"We were told to eat the same number of beans as one's age, but since we age every year, it's not easy to eat that many."
5. Various of bean throwing event
6. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Name not given, 24-year-old from Tokyo:
++AUDIO QUALITY AS INCOMING++
"We will eat the beans back in office, hoping that the business does well this year."
7. People with bags trying to catch bags of beans, waving to get attention
STORYLINE:
Residents of downtown Tokyo descend on a Buddhist temple to mark the last day of winter in the Japanese lunar calendar by having dried soybeans, rice cakes and other snacks thrown at them.

The traditional event is said to drive away evil spirits and bring good luck.

At the Zojoji temple in downtown Tokyo, the participants held up their hands high up, some holding up bags in hopes of a better haul, as sumo wrestlers, actors, singers and other celebrity guests threw small packs of “fukumame” beans from an elevated stage.

"Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi! (Demons out, fortune in!)” both the throwers and the participants chant to drive away evil sprits and bring good luck.

Naomi Oshino in her 40s volunteered to be a "fuku onna" (lucky woman) this year to spread the fortune from a platform at Zojyo-ji Temple in Tokyo.

"There has not been much happy news recently. I would like to spread the fortune and happiness as a fuku onna by throwing the beans to people who came", says Oshino.

A group of women in their 60s took a two-hour journey on a train to attend the event from Kanagawa Prefecture. 

One of them says, "We were told to eat the same number of beans as one's age, but since we age every year, it's not easy to eat that many."

This year is the Lunar New Year of the horse and small wooden horses were gifted to participants by the temple.

Souma Kanemura, a 24-year-old, visited the temple with his colleagues from a nearby office. 

"We will eat the beans back in office, hoping that the business does well this year", Kanemura says.

"Setsubun" is one of Japan’s annual festivals held at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples across the country, it falls on the day before the beginning of spring based on the old calendar in Japan.

The practice to throw soya beans at demons in Japanese folklore, known as "oni", is believed to have its origin in ancient Chinese rituals to ward off evil spirits.

AP Video by Mayuko Ono

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