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The Yomiuri Shimbun Participants begin to run toward the main building at 6 a.m. on Friday at Nishinomiya Shrine in Hyogo Prefecture.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
12:29 JST, January 10, 2025
NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo — Nishinomiya Shrine in Hyogo Prefecture on Friday held a ceremonial race to select this year’s “lucky men.”
About 5,000 people ran along the roughly 230-meter approach to the shrine’s main building of worship.
The race dates back to the Edo period (1603-1867), and the first three to finish are declared fukuotoko, or the year’s lucky men.
The first fukuotoko this year was a high school student. Referring to the victims of the Noto region, which was hit by a series of disasters last year, the 17-year-old boy said, “I would like to share my good fortune with the people of Noto.”
