The venue that hosted The Beatles' only concerts in Japan has released long-forgotten photos of the legendary British band six decades after the gigs.
At the height of Beatlemania in 1966, when the quartet was the world's most famous pop group, the Beatles staged five summer performances in Tokyo in front of screaming fans.
Crowds reportedly thronged their hotel, where they stayed in the finest suite.
Then in 2009, more than 100 photos shot during the gigs "were discovered on a shelf" inside an office at the concert venue Nippon Budokan, the arena's operator told AFP.
But the 19 rolls of negative film -- reportedly wrapped in paper and labelled in such a way that it suggested they belonged to Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun -- remained "stored as they were" until recently, the operator said in a statement.
However, as the 60th anniversary of the Japan tour approached, the venue operator asked a Beatles expert to examine the negatives, and "his assessment revealed that the photos appear to have never been published" in newspapers or other media.
Among the photos released by the concert venue is a shot of John Lennon smiling beside a Japanese doll that resembles a figurine featuring on the album cover of the 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The global stars were under tight security during their visit, but the doll may have been purchased during a hurried shopping trip, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said.
The newspaper is investigating who took the photos and why the negatives had been kept in Nippon Budokan despite being wrapped in paper labelled "The Yomiuri Shimbun archives room", it said.
The photos capture "the atmosphere of that one and only Japan tour -- now remembered as a historic event -- as well as various moments from their stay in Japan," the Nippon Budokan statement said.