A celebration of friendship between Japan and India with cricket as the backdrop

SANO, Japan (AP) — Japan and India celebrated 75 years of friendship with an international T20 cricket match as the backdrop on Tuesday, marking a new chapter in sports and diplomacy between the two.

The match was hosted as part of an agreement reached during a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to mark the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship.

It was delayed nearly three hours, first by the late arrival of match officials and the Indian team due to traffic and then by a wet outfield. The match was then reduced to five overs per side as Japan gave the three-time world champions a royal scare before falling two runs short.

India opted to bat and finished 32-4 in its five overs, with skipper Shreyas Iyer scoring 16 off 12 balls. Japan’s Charlie Hara-Hinze, a 17-year-old left-arm spinner, etched his name in the history books by getting Abhishek Sharma out for a duck and also dismissing Iyer.

Axar Patel and Washington Sundar then held their own to defend India’s low score. Skipper Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming scored 12 runs, but was unable to take his side past the finish line as Japan finished 30-3.

Despite the defeat, it was a heroic effort from the 41st-ranked Japanese team against the biggest team in world cricket.

See AP’s full cricket coverage here

A group dances during a pre-game ceremony before the India vs Japan Suzuki Cup T20 cricket match in Sano, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (AP Photo/Tomohiro Ohsumi)

Fans of India cheer before the India vs Japan Suzuki Cup T20 cricket match in Sano, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (AP Photo/Tomohiro Ohsumi)

Japan's players celebrate a Indian wicket during the Suzuki Cup T20 cricket match in Sano, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (AP Photo/Tomohiro Ohsumi)

India's Sanju Samson bats against Japan during the Suzuki Cup T20 cricket match in Sano, Japan, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, marking 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. (AP Photo/Tomohiro Ohsumi)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — After a summer spent packing away sockeye salmon, Alaska’s heftiest brown bears are ready to throw their weight around.

Online voting began Tuesday for Fat Bear Week, the annual contest that pits the rotund residents of Katmai National Park and Preserve against each other for the title of most oversized ursine.

Last year's winner, Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — is hungry for a repeat. Chunk's weight in 2025 was estimated at 1,200 pounds, which gave him a narrow victory. This year he's back and facing corpulent competition like Gully — aka Bear 903 — the offspring of two-time champion Grazer.

The contest, which is in its 12th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the abundant salmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fish in midair as they make their way upstream to spawn.

The event this year features 16 bears facing off in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament. All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, with the winner declared Sept. 29. The public can watch the bears on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding on their favorite.

“Fat bears are successful bears,” the nonprofit's website says. They gorge on salmon starting in late June in order to accumulate fat reserves to prepare for winter hibernation, when they do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight.

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.

Voters in the online contest can review before-and-after photos of the bears, lean at the start of summer and fattened at the end. The bears are not actually weighed — imagine that process — and some fans choose their favorite based on their looks or backstory.

To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area around the river.

The live cameras at Brooks Falls captured the moments in 2024 when mother bear 128 Grazer ’s cub slipped over the waterfall and floated into the fishing spot occupied by Chunk, who attacked and injured the cub. Grazer fought Chunk, but the cub ultimately died. After the dramatic fight, voting fans handed Grazer a victory over Chunk. Then Chunk returned in 2025 to take the title.

Fat Bear Week was started in 2014 as an interactive way to inform the public about brown bears, the coastal cousins of grizzlies.

FILE - This image provided by the National Park Service shows bear 32 Chunk at Katmai National Park in Alaska on Sept. 19, 2024. (E. Johnston/National Park Service via AP, File)