THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
November 26, 2025 at 18:32 JST
A photo from the “Syria: Prisons of Despair” series shows an underground solitary cell at Branch 251 of the General Intelligence Directorate, also known as the al-Khatib Branch, in Damascus on Dec. 15. Torture is said to have been carried out here, and walls bear inscriptions including tally marks counting the days. (Hikaru Uchida)
The Asahi Shimbun was selected for the 2025 Tokyo Press Photographers Association Award based on the newspaper’s body of work revealing the secret detention facilities that underpinned the Assad regime’s reign of terror in Syria.
The Tokyo Press Photographers Association, comprising 33 newspapers, news agencies and broadcasters, announced the winner of the award highlighting outstanding photojournalism on Nov. 25 along with other winners of prizes in individual categories.
Along with reporters from the international news section, photographer Mitsuru Uchida entered Syria amid the turmoil on the ground last December immediately after the collapse of the Assad regime, an authoritarian rule spanning two generations.
The series of photographs, titled “Syria: Prisons of Despair,” was published in the morning edition of Dec. 20 and elsewhere.
The Asahi Shimbun also received two merit prizes.
A photo taken in Ukraine by Nobuo Fujiwara was honored in the overseas general news category, while a photo by Shota Tomonaga from the World Athletics Championships was recognized in the domestic sports category.
In “Lost Family, Lost Home: Three Years into Invasion of Ukraine,” taken in February, Fujiwara captures a Ukrainian woman kissing a photo of her deceased family members at the site of her home in the northern city of Chernihiv, which was destroyed by a Russian attack.
Tomonaga’s “Gazing Ahead: Rachid Muratake” shows the track and field athlete on the starting blocks for the men’s 110-meter hurdles final at the National Stadium in September, his eyes fixed on the finish line.
About 300 works, including the award-winning pieces, will be on display at the 2025 Photojournalism Exhibition.
Venues and dates are Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store in Tokyo from Dec. 10-22; Ginza Mitsukoshi in Tokyo from Dec. 27-Jan. 5 and closed on New Year’s Day; and the Japan Newspaper Museum in Yokohama from Jan. 10-April 19.
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