News On Japan

Hokkaido Warned of Heavy Rain

HOKKAIDO - Hokkaido is expected to remain rainy under the influence of a low-pressure system and the seasonal rain front, with locally intense downpours possible during the morning and flooding risks in low-lying areas.

Active rain clouds extended from around the Tsugaru Strait into southern Hokkaido, bringing heavy rain to parts of the region as well as the Tsugaru Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture.

A low-pressure system over the Sea of Japan was drawing warm, moist air toward an accompanying front, causing rain clouds to develop across northern Japan. The low-pressure system is forecast to remain near northern Hokkaido through the evening, while the front stretches around the Tsugaru Strait.

Rain clouds are expected to move eastward, bringing rainfall of up to 30 millimeters per hour to parts of the Hidaka and Tokachi regions during the morning.

Rain will continue across a wide area in the afternoon, although gaps in the rain clouds are expected to increase toward the evening and nighttime. Rain is likely to persist mainly along the Pacific side, near the front, and in northern Hokkaido, closer to the low-pressure system.

More than 100 millimeters of additional rainfall is forecast in the Hidaka region during the 24-hour period, with totals of around 100 millimeters also possible from parts of the Tokachi region to the Kushiro area.

Residents are being urged to remain alert for flooded roads, inundation of low-lying land, landslides caused by loosened ground and rising river levels. Particularly heavy rainfall is possible along Hokkaido's Pacific coast.

Cloudy conditions are also expected across the Tohoku region, with rain likely in many areas, particularly in the north.

Source: ウェザーニュース

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

A large new typhoon formed near the Ogasawara Islands on August 12 and could approach Honshu around the end of the Obon holiday period, while the remnants of Typhoon No. 15 continue to bring unstable weather and a risk of heavy rain across a wide area of Japan.

Hiroko Saito was 19 years old when she left Japan for North Korea in June 1961 with her Korean husband and their one-year-old daughter, persuaded by assurances that they were heading to a "paradise on earth" and that she could return to Japan after three years. Instead, she would spend four decades in North Korea, enduring chronic hunger, the deaths of her husband and children and a desperate struggle to survive before finally escaping and returning home in 2001.

Transport disruption caused by Typhoon No. 15 was easing across eastern Japan on the morning of August 12, with most major railway and airline services returning to normal after dozens of flight cancellations and widespread rail disruption during the storm's landfall in Ibaraki Prefecture the previous evening.

Japan's H3 Rocket No. 9 successfully placed the Michibiki No. 7 navigation satellite into its planned orbit after lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at 4:23 a.m. on August 11, marking the country's second consecutive successful H3 launch.

The Tokaido Shinkansen operated its first overnight service ahead of the Obon holiday period, offering travelers a 15,000 yen trip from the Tokyo area to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka while allowing them to save on hotel costs and arrive earlier than the first regular morning trains.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Travel NEWS

Typhoon No. 15 continued moving west across central Japan on August 12, but heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms remained a threat far from the storm's center, with intense rainfall reported in parts of Tokyo and damage including fallen and broken trees in Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.

Typhoon No. 15 approached the Kinki region on the morning of August 12 before weakening into a tropical depression over the Sea of Japan, but authorities are warning that sudden thunderstorms and heavy rain remain possible across the region.

Summer festivals are in full swing across Japan, with distinctive local dances ranging from long-established traditions to unusual routines born at fishermen's banquets and even performances set to the music of American rock band Bon Jovi.

The Tokaido Shinkansen operated its first overnight service ahead of the Obon holiday period, offering travelers a 15,000 yen trip from the Tokyo area to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka while allowing them to save on hotel costs and arrive earlier than the first regular morning trains.

A fireworks festival that had been promoted as a simultaneous display of more than 10,000 fireworks across three cities on Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture was abruptly canceled on August 9, with organizers having failed to submit applications for permits required to hold the event.

Nara Park's famous deer are increasingly spilling into residential areas and farmland as their population reaches a record high, creating new problems for residents even as the animals remain a major attraction for visitors to the ancient capital.

Japan's dating scene has its own vocabulary, its own etiquette, and — for the arrangement style commonly known abroad as sugar dating — its own dedicated clubs.

Maids from Akihabara maid cafes joined shrine maidens from Kanda Myojin and members of the public on August 8 to sprinkle water across the shrine grounds in Tokyo, calling out "Cool down!" as they took part in a summer tradition aimed at easing the midsummer heat.