The rainy season now covers the entire archipelago, except for Hokkaido, with the Monday entry of the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions into the wet period, the Meteorological Agency said Monday.
The wet season was newly declared in both the southern and northern parts of the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions. Hokkaido does not have a rainy season.
The announcement came a week earlier than average years in northern Tohoku, and five days earlier in southern Tohoku and Hokuriku.
A front stretching from Chugoku and Shikoku to the Kinki region has brought cloudy or rainy weather to a large area of western and eastern Japan. The front was activated by Typhoon No. 3 above Shanghai. On Thursday, the rainy season was declared in the Chugoku, Kinki, Tokai and Kanto-Koshin regions of Honshu. Tokyo's first rain came Monday, four days after the announcement.