Weather

As the rice-planting season wraps up, Higashihiroshima, known as a rice-producing city, is still reeling from last summer's devastating floods. This year, farmers weren't able to plant rice in 90 percent of the rice fields affected by the flood in the city, officials say. In response, one agricul...

Heavy rainfall hit parts of western Japan beginning early Friday, causing more than 800 people to evacuate their homes and disrupting train services throughout the region. In Hiroshima Prefecture alone, 775 people had fled to shelters as of 10 a.m. Friday, while dozens more in Yamaguchi and Eh...

A total of 1,251 people across the nation were taken to hospitals by ambulance due to heatstroke in the week to Sunday, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday. The number dropped from the previous week's 2,053 but almost doubled from the 659 seen during the same period last year....

Three women died and around 10 students were taken to hospitals Monday due to heatstroke symptoms as unseasonably hot weather continued in Japan, authorities have said. The mercury topped 30 degrees Celsius for a fourth straight day in central Tokyo, setting a new record for May, the Japan Met...

Unseasonably hot conditions gripped wide areas of Japan on Sunday, with the town of Saroma in Hokkaido setting the highest temperature ever recorded in the country for the month of May. Two men — one in Shimizu, Hokkaido, and the other in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture — died and at least 575 people ...

Temperatures rose across Japan on Saturday to highs usually not seen until the height of summer, prompting the weather agency to issue heatstroke warnings. The city of Taketa, in Oita Prefecture, marked 35.0 C, the hottest in the country so far this year, while central Tokyo, Nagoya and the cit...

Heavy rain lashed Japan's main island of Honshu on Tuesday, disrupting rush-hour transport and prompting one city to advise residents to evacuate. The western city of Wakayama was deluged by 55.5 millimeters of rain per hour during the early morning — a record for May — while central Tokyo and...

To allow people to better prepare for upcoming weather, the Meteorological Agency will next month begin offering temperature forecasts for 12 days instead of the current seven. The forecasts will be published on the agency's official website every day at around 2:30 p.m. starting June 19. The ...

Heavy rain continued to lash Kyushu on Monday after stranding more than 300 people on a mountain on Yakushima island over the weekend. The Meteorological Agency warned torrential rain may cause landslides and floods, and issued a caution on the threat of tornadoes and lightning strikes across ...

At least 314 people stranded by heavy rains — many of them overnight — managed to descend a mountain on Yakushima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture with the help of rescuers from the Japan Coast Guard, the Ground Self-Defense Forces and others on Sunday. Hikers in more than 10 cars and buses were f...