Mar 18 (NHK) - Japan's Meteorological Agency announced on Saturday the official start of Tokyo's annual cherry blossom season.
The Agency says the warm weather since late February, including 2 days this week when the high topped 20 degrees Celsius, is likely to have helped.
Saturday's low temperature of 3.1 degrees Celsius was more like early March. It was 1.5 degrees lower than average.
Agency officials confirmed that a Somei Yoshino cherry tree at Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo has produced at least 5 flowers.
The Agency announces the start of the cherry blossom season in Tokyo when that number of flowers are seen on the shrine's benchmark cherry tree.
The blossoms normally reach their peak a week to 10 days after blooming begins.
A commercial weather-information firm says trees will likely start blooming in other parts of the Kanto Region through the end of this month.
