News On Japan

Snow falls 30 days early in Fukuoka

FUKUOKA - Fukuoka City, on the northern shore of Japan's Kyushu Island, observed its first snowfall of the season on Saturday, 30 days ahead of average.

Hakata Ward in Fukuoka City was hit by a severe hailstorm amid strong winds at about 7:30 AM Saturday morning, Nov 18.

The Fukuoka District Meteorological Observatory confirmed the early snowfall, highlighting its arrival 30 days sooner than the average and 26 days earlier than the previous year.

Mountains with higher altitudes were entirely blanketed in snow.

A surge of the season's coldest air into the northern Kyushu region has resulted in unstable weather conditions. This led to occasional violent gusts, with Hakata Ward recording a peak wind speed of 26.7 meters per second.

In Hakata Ward, a construction site's scaffolding nearly collapsed, prompting traffic restrictions on parts of Ohbashi Street.

The Meteorological Observatory has alerted the public to be cautious of strong winds and similar conditions through the early hours of Sunday, Nov 19, FBS Fukuoka reports.

Source: FBS福岡放送ニュース

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Typhoon No. 30 remained extremely powerful at 6 a.m. on October 22 and is expected to turn northwest toward Okinawa's Sakishima Islands, bringing violent winds and torrential rain, while a weather front combined with the typhoon could deliver up to 300 millimeters of rainfall across western and eastern Japan through the weekend.

A growing wave of cyberattacks across Japan has raised concerns over the possible use of Chinese-developed artificial intelligence in hacking operations, with personal information belonging to tens of thousands of police employees potentially exposed and major companies forced to suspend online services, while cybersecurity experts warn that slow decision-making within Japanese organizations is allowing damage to spread.

Japan's H3 rocket successfully launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on the morning of October 20th, placing the probe into its planned orbit in the first stage of a mission to collect samples from one of Mars' moons and return them to Earth.

Motorcycle owners across Japan can now choose their preferred license plate numbers under a new system introduced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on October 19th, with popular numbers allocated by lottery and applications costing between 2,500 and 3,000 yen.

Nearly one in three large companies in Japan have experienced a data leak or a suspected breach, according to a survey released by Teikoku Databank on October 19th, highlighting growing concerns over corporate information security as unauthorized access incidents continue to affect businesses across the country.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Travel NEWS

The Northern Alps in central Japan have entered the height of their autumn colors, with the alpine landscape around Tateyama's Murodo Plateau in Toyama Prefecture offering spectacular views of red and yellow vegetation, rugged mountain ridges and the rare Japanese rock ptarmigan, a protected bird species whose survival depends on the delicate balance of the mountain ecosystem.

Motorcycle owners across Japan can now choose their preferred license plate numbers under a new system introduced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on October 19th, with popular numbers allocated by lottery and applications costing between 2,500 and 3,000 yen.

Temperatures fell to their lowest levels of the season across much of Japan on the morning of October 18, with Rikubetsu in Hokkaido recording minus 4.3 degrees Celsius, the country's lowest temperature so far this autumn, before sunshine brought warmer conditions during the day and some areas experienced unseasonably hot weather.

Kyoto City expects revenue from its accommodation tax to more than double to approximately 13.2 billion yen this fiscal year following a substantial increase in the maximum nightly levy to 10,000 yen, as the city seeks to address overtourism and ease the pressure that millions of visitors place on residents and public infrastructure.

The Nada Fighting Festival, known for its spectacular collisions between massive portable shrines weighing around two tons, drew large crowds to Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, on October 15, as participants repeatedly slammed the heavy structures into one another in a traditional ritual believed to please the gods.

The El Niño phenomenon developing in the Pacific Ocean has reached its strongest level since records began in 1949, with sea surface temperatures off Peru rising 4 degrees Celsius above normal in September, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced on October 9, raising concerns about extreme weather worldwide and the prospect of an unusually warm winter in Japan.

Japan's first Disney cruise ship will be named "Disney Imagination," with Oriental Land and its partners planning to launch the service in spring 2029, offering a new Disney-themed travel experience departing from Tokyo.

Osaka's iconic Glico sign in Dotonbori will undergo a major renewal next spring after more than a decade of operation, with its current LED display set to be switched off for the final time on November 30.