Somewhere cold given the clothing and hats, so Manchuria, Mongolia, even Korea. The front row 1st right soldier boots appear to have spurs attached. Could his weapon be carbine, it certainly does not look like the standard rifle. See: NEAR MINT JAPANESE TYPE 38 CARBINE — Horse Soldier Slightly clearer photo of carbines: https://www.riflemagazine.com/arisaka-rifles-carbines So, a cavalry unit in Manchuria? Possibly from the allied Inner Mongolian Army : Fighting for the Empire – Meet Japan's Foreign Volunteers of WW2 - MilitaryHistoryNow.com
First photo. One for an expert but I do not think this is a WW2 photo. I believe that by WW2 the shoulder tabs had been removed. Tim
I mean I’m not an expert either and you definitely could be right. But I’m not sure. I just looked up photos of Japanese soldiers during WW2 just to see the type of uniforms they wore and a lot of them had shoulder tabs.