Water- and road-related accidents claimed 282 lives across Japan during the Bon summer holidays this year, the National Police Agency said Tuesday.
Over the seven-day period through Sunday, 52 people were killed and eight others disappeared in 120 water-related accidents. Five of those who died were junior high school students and young children.
On Saturday, there were 10 water-related fatalities, one each in Ibaraki, Gunma, Kanagawa, Toyama, Fukui, Gifu, Osaka, Hyogo, Hiroshima and Kagoshima prefectures. One person was meanwhile reported missing in Chiba Prefecture and another in Tokushima Prefecture.
On Sunday, two people were killed in Aomori Prefecture, and one each in Hokkaido, Chiba, Yamanashi, Okayama, Oita and Kagoshima prefectures. The same day, one person disappeared in Hokkaido and another in Shiga Prefecture.
The death toll in 652 water-related accidents from July 1 to Aug. 18 stands at 305, with 21 people missing and 144 injured.
The death toll from water-related accidents since July 1 is down by 22 from the same period last year, while the number of missing is down 11 and injured is down five.
The number of traffic deaths during the Bon holidays rose by 14, or 6.5 percent, from last year, amounting to 230 people in the 10 days through Monday.
By prefecture, Miyagi and Ibaraki topped the list of Bon traffic deaths with 13 each. followed by Hokkaido with 11 and Tokyo with 10.
There were no road deaths reported in Wakayama, Kumamoto or Okinawa prefectures, the NPA said.
The death toll on expressways increased by five from the corresponding period last year to 16 people. On Aug. 10, a large tractor-trailer rig rammed into cars jammed in holiday traffic on the Higashi Meihan Expressway in Suzuka in Mie Prefecture, killing five people and injuring six.
Many people return to their hometowns during Bon, the festival of the dead.