The rainy season this year is beginning for some western and central parts of the Japanese archipelago weeks earlier than usual, recording the earliest starting date ever in some of these regions since statistics became available in 1951.

According to preliminary figures released by the Meteorological Agency, the Kinki region, which includes Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto, and other surrounding prefectures, likely entered the rainy season Sunday, 25 days earlier than last year.

The arrival of the rainy season, coming 21 days earlier than average, was the earliest it has begun in Kinki since the agency began compiling statistics 70 years ago. The tentative start date, if unchanged, would break the May 22 record set in 1956 and 2011.