Yellow sand swept up from mainland China has begun to cover areas from Hokkaido to northern Kyushu, with both the weather agency and environment ministry urging residents to exercise caution.
If yellow sand is observed in Tokyo, it would be the capital’s first in 16 years for the month of April. The last time yellow sand was observed in Tokyo was in May 2021, the weather agency said.
According to the Meteorological Agency, dust and sandstorms carrying yellow sand are expected to affect a wide area of northern and western Japan from Wednesday until Thursday morning.
In some areas, visibility could be reduced to under 10 kilometers. In cases where visibility is cut to under 5 km, sand can become noticeable on surfaces such as cars and laundry, with traffic disruptions also possible.
As of Wednesday morning, areas such as Fukuoka’s Chuo Ward saw visibility reduced to 8 km.
The weather agency has called for caution as the dust may affect flights and other transportation systems, while the environment ministry advised residents with respiratory conditions, as well as children and the elderly, to take precautions.
Weather officials say that yellow sand is often observed in areas such as Kyushu around this time of year, due to its proximity to China, but that it is rare to see such dust particles reach far-off areas like Hokkaido.
The high volume of yellow sand in the country is believed to have spread from a severe sandstorm that hit Beijing and 17 other provincial-level regions in China from April 9 to April 11. The sandstorm also affected air quality on the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday afternoon.
Real-time data showed that the air quality index for Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and some other northern cities in China reached or exceeded 500 — the maximum index value — on Monday, indicating that it had reached the highest the level of air pollution. For parts of Monday and Tuesday, the level of fine particulate matter — also known as PM2.5 — was “hazardous” in the Chinese capital, according to the Air Quality Index, which tracks the real-time air quality in major cities globally.
The China Meteorological Administration said the storm affected 15 provincial-level regions, stretching from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to Heilongjiang province, and spreading as far south as Shanghai and some parts of Anhui province.
Chinese state media reported that around 18 cities in northern China have experienced a string of severe dust storms since early March, and this is the eighth sandstorm since the start of 2023.
Liu Bingjiang, head of the atmospheric environment department at China’s environment ministry, said in late March that a total of 140 cities across the country have seen heavy dust pollution since the beginning of this year, of which 131 have experienced “severe” pollution. Both figures are the highest in five years.
The yellow sand mainly came from the southern part of Mongolia and the central and western regions of Inner Mongolia, triggered by strong air currents and low precipitation in dust source areas, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration in China.
The issue of yellow sand is a top environmental priority for Japan, China and South Korea, with initiatives outlined in a joint action plan on environmental cooperation.
Since the early 2000s, the three countries have been engaged in ministerial-level discussions to develop strategies to tackle yellow sand and the subsequent air pollution that have impacted the region for two decades.
Efforts to address DSS include joint research, policy dialogue on air pollution, groups dedicated to DSS monitoring, management and control, and annual meetings between the environment ministers of the three countries.
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