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Japan Times
4 hours ago
- Climate
- Japan Times
Rainy season officially underway across most of country
The Meteorological Agency announced Tuesday that the Kanto-Koshin and Hokuriku regions have 'likely entered the rainy season,' marking the beginning of sustained wet weather across most of the country. The declaration follows Monday's announcement for the Tokai, Kinki, and Chugoku regions. The northern Kyushu and Shikoku regions entered the rainy season on Sunday while the season ended in Okinawa the same day, the agency said. Southern Kyushu's rainy season began unusually early, on May 16. The seasonal rain front is forecast to linger over Honshu, bringing repeated rounds of rainfall to both western and eastern Japan. It is expected to remain especially active through Wednesday, with heavy rain likely in areas including Kanto-Koshin and Hokuriku. Western Japan faces a particularly high risk of torrential downpours. While the front may temporarily weaken after Wednesday, forecasters expect it to strengthen again around Saturday, coinciding with the likely start of the rainy season in the Tohoku region. On Tuesday morning, northern Kyushu saw especially intense rain, prompting the Meteorological Agency to warn of a potential linear rainband forming later in the day. In the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Wednesday, up to 180 millimeters of rain is forecast in northern Kyushu, 150 mm in the Kinki region, and 120 mm across Chugoku and southern Kyushu. Between 6 a.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday, up to 60 mm of rain is expected in northern Kyushu. With the seasonal rains now in full swing, authorities are urging residents to remain on alert for landslides, river overflows, and flooding in low-lying areas such as underpasses. Officials recommend preparing emergency supplies, confirming multiple evacuation routes that avoid flood-prone zones, and clearing gutters and drains of debris to reduce risk before heavy rainfall begins. Information from Jiji added
The Mainichi
2 days ago
- The Mainichi
Edging Toward Japan 62: In Search of a Japan of cool summers and light nights
There is a curious historical footnote that tends to be forgotten about the Japanese imperial expansion of the late 19th and early 20th century -- largely remembered today as a remorseless expansion westwards and southwards over the Asian continent. It's easy to overlook the fact that there was also a small northern component of this expansion resulting in Japan wresting control for quite a long historical period of part of the island of Sakhalin, in modern day Russia. From 1905 until 1945, the Japanese administered the southern part -- and from 1918 to 1925 the entirety -- of this often overlooked island, meaning that you could travel all the way up the archipelago from the southern tip of Taiwan to the northern tip of Sakhalin without ever leaving Japanese jurisdiction. The Japanese colony on Sakhalin was called "Karafuto" and its third Director General was a man called Hiraoka Sadataro, who also happened to be the novelist Yukio Mishima's paternal grandfather. "Karafuto" is now a land pretty much lost to history, a piece of modern-day Russia that was once Japanese, but sounds like some fantasy landscape such as the imaginary country of Ihatov dreamt up in the 1920s by the Tohoku writer Kenji Miyazawa. The real Karafuto however was not a dreamscape, but a place sometimes bitterly fought over for its raw materials (timber, petroleum and fishing) with native peoples and bonded labourers moved around like chess pieces to make way for imperial ambitions. Karafuto popped up in my mind the other day when I was idly dreaming of a Japan that did not suffer from ever more brutally oppressive summers. Imagine a Japan, I was thinking, which you could visit in summer and where the days were long and the weather tolerably cool, how magical that would be. And then I realised that the fantasy cool-and-summery Japan must only be located in the lost geographical landscape of Karafuto. People often ask me about visiting Japan in the summer and I am often stuck for an answer. I realize that many people enjoy the rituals of a Japanese summer -- the clatter of yukata and geta, the hiss of the cicada, the fireworks, the festivals, the kawadoko (riverside) dining by the Kamo river in Kyoto. Many people visit Japan in summer and have a wonderful time. But as someone constitutionally incapable of handling the heat and humidity, Japan in summer is not for me. If I spent my summers in Japan, I would spend my entire time indoors, huddled up close to an air conditioner. I've been religiously avoiding Japanese summers since that of 1990, when I nearly dissolved in a sweaty puddle into the sheets in my unairconditioned 6-tatami-mat room in a boarding house in the Uzumasa area of Kyoto. Since then, I have rarely made an appearance in Japan in July or August. In fact, as the years have rolled on, and Japan's summers have got ever hotter, I have now also marked the months of June and September on my "Avoid" list. This is all decidedly inconvenient. Because it just happens that the months of June to September are also the time of year when I have the greatest opportunity to visit Japan with my school age children. I have often thought how we might square this circle. I've investigated temperatures in the traditional places of retreat from the summer heat like Karuizawa and Hakone, but they are still too hot for me. Hokkaido is more distant, but even if I trekked that far north, it still wouldn't be cool enough and would leave me dreaming of spending August like the British Royal Family in the Highlands of Scotland. It's a dilemma not being able to visit the country you most want to go at the time of year when you have the most time. So after looking up temperatures on the far periphery of Hokkaido, my eye looked out even further north on the map and I began to wonder if the Japanese gained possession (currently disputed) from the Russians of the Kuril Islands in the far north whether I might then have a suitably cool Japanese destination to visit in summer. Or I found myself dreaming of Sakhalin and half-regretting that the Japanese ever lost their colony there, which would have been quite perfect for my constitution. The controversial journalist Graham Hancock has been promoting for many decades the idea that at the end of the last Ice Age an advanced civilization, having found their native land unliveable due to radical climate change and rapidly increasing sea levels, took to their boats and headed off to new lands. I'm wondering if one day the Japanese will, by common consensus, proclaim their traditional homeland simply too hot to live in anymore and take to their boats and start again somewhere a lot cooler. They might do a deal on some uninhabited chunk of northern landmass and restart their civilization there, a remaking of "Karafuto" for those who simply can't hack the heat and humidity any more. @DamianFlanagan (This is Part 61 of a series) In this column, Damian Flanagan, a researcher in Japanese literature, ponders about Japanese culture as he travels back and forth between Japan and Britain. Profile: Damian Flanagan is an author and critic born in Britain in 1969. He studied in Tokyo and Kyoto between 1989 and 1990 while a student at Cambridge University. He was engaged in research activities at Kobe University from 1993 through 1999. After taking the master's and doctoral courses in Japanese literature, he earned a Ph.D. in 2000. He is now based in both Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and Manchester. He is the author of "Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature" (Sekai Bungaku no superstar Natsume Soseki).
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Gen Z Japanese kiwi farmer shows Fukushima ‘moving forward' 14 years after nuclear disaster
A short drive from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site, novice farmer Takuya Haraguchi tends to his kiwi saplings under the spring sunshine, bringing life back to a former no-go zone. Haraguchi was 11 years old when Japan's strongest earthquake on record struck in March 2011, unleashing a tsunami that left 18,500 people dead or missing. The wall of water crashed into the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Japan's northeast coast, causing a devastating meltdown. At the time, the bookish young Haraguchi, who grew up far away in Osaka , feared that radiation would make the whole country uninhabitable. Haraguchi, from Osaka, was 11 when the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Photo: AFP But now, aged 25, the new resident of the rural town of Okuma says he believes in the future of Fukushima 'Everyone knows about the nuclear accident. But not many people know about this area, and how it's moving forward,' Haraguchi, tanned from working on his farm, says.
Japan Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan law comes into force to extend nuclear plant lifespans
A law allowing nuclear reactors to operate beyond 60 years took effect in Japan on Friday, as the government turns back to atomic energy 14 years after the Fukushima catastrophe. The world's fourth-largest economy is targeting carbon neutrality by 2050 but remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels — partly because many nuclear reactors were taken offline after the meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. The government now plans to increase its reliance on nuclear power, in part to help meet growing energy demand from artificial intelligence and microchip factories. The 60-year limit was brought in after the 2011 disaster, which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in off the Tohoku coast. Under the amended law, nuclear plants' operating period may be extended beyond 60 years to compensate for stoppages caused by "unforeseeable circumstances," the government says. This means, for example, that one reactor in Fukui Prefecture, suspended for 12 years after the Fukushima crisis, will now be able to operate up until 2047 — 72 years after its debut, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported. But operators require approval from the country's nuclear safety watchdog for the exemption. The law also includes measures intended to strengthen safety checks at aging reactors. The legal revision is also aimed at helping Japan better cope with power crunches, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked energy market turmoil. Japan's Strategic Energy Plan had previously vowed to "reduce reliance on nuclear power as much as possible." But this pledge was dropped from the latest version approved in February, which includes an intention to make renewables the country's top power source by 2040. Under the plan, nuclear power will account for around 20% of Japan's energy supply by 2040 — up from 5.6% in 2022. Also in February, Japan pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 60% in the next decade from 2013 levels, a target decried by campaigners as far short of what was needed under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming. Japan is the world's fifth largest emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the United States, India and Russia.
RNZ News
19-05-2025
- RNZ News
A Japanese manga claims a natural disaster is imminent. Now, some tourists are cancelling their trips
By Mai Takiguchi and Chris Lau , CNN Foreign tourists gather at Kyoto station on 16 April 2025. Photo: PHILIP FONG A Japanese comic book warns of a "real catastrophe". A psychic predicts mass destruction. A feng shui master urges people to stay away. This might sound like the plot of a disaster movie but for Japan's tourism industry, a recent spate of so-called earthquake-related "predictions" like these has led to more superstitious travellers, particularly in East Asia, cancelling or delaying their holidays. Seismologists have long warned that accurately predicting when an earthquake might strike is all but impossible. Japan is a country with a good track record of withstanding even powerful tremors and the prospect of a major quake is something its population lives with on a daily basis. But the fear of a "big one", amplified by both soothsayers and social media, is prompting some travellers to get cold feet. And for many, it's a comic book that's scaring them away. Published by manga artist Ryo Tatsuki in 1999, The Future I Saw warned of a major disaster in March 2011, a date which turned out to coincide with the cataclysmic quake that struck Japan's northern Tohoku region that month. Her "complete version" released in 2021 claimed that the next big earthquake will hit this July. At the same time, psychics from Japan and Hong Kong have shared similar warnings, triggering some unfounded panic online that has led to a flurry of cancelations of travel plans from destinations in the region. CN Yuen, managing director of WWPKG, a travel agency based in Hong Kong, said bookings to Japan dropped by half during the Easter holiday and are expected to dip further in the coming two months. The speculations have scared off mostly travellers from mainland China and Hong Kong, which are Japan's second- and fourth-largest sources of tourists, respectively. But the fear has also spread to other markets such as Thailand and Vietnam, where social media platforms are overflowing with posts and videos warning people to think twice before travelling to Japan. Anxieties provoked by these prophecies have, according to Yuen, become "ingrained". He added that "people just say they want to hold off their trip for now". Japan is no stranger to severe earthquakes. It lies on the Ring of Fire, an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Fears of a "big one" have been mounting since the Japanese government warned in January that there was an 80 percent chance of a severe earthquake hitting the country's southern Nankai Trough within 30 years. Some seismologists have been critical of these warnings, questioning whether they can ever be accurate. Tatsuki's work has a significant following in East Asia and her fans often believe she can accurately see future events in her dreams. She draws a cartoon version of herself in the manga, where she shares visions she gleans from her slumbers with other characters. Some of these dreams turn out to bear close resemblance to real-life events. Her 2011 quake prediction - or coincidence - made Tatsuki famous not just in Japan but also in other parts of Asia like Thailand and China. The comic book has sold 900,000 copies, according to its publisher. It has also been published in Chinese. The cover of Japanese comic book, "The Future I Saw (Complete Version)". Photo: Mai Takiguchi / CNN Fans believed she also predicted the deaths of Princess Diana and singer Freddie Mercury, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, however critics say her visions are too vague to be taken seriously. The manga's cover bears the words "massive disaster in March, 2011", leading many to believe that she predicted the 9.0-magnitude earthquake more than a decade before it hit Tohoku. The quake triggered a deadly tsunami that killed tens of thousands and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. In the latest edition, The Future I Saw (Complete Version) , Tatsuki warned that on 5 July this year, a crack will open up under the seabed between Japan and the Philippines, sending ashore waves three times as tall as those from the Tohoku earthquake. The author was recently asked what she thought about the cancelled trips resulting from readers' interpretations of her book. Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported last week that while she viewed it "very positively" that interest in her work has made people more prepared for disasters, she urged them not to be "overly swayed" by her dreams and "act appropriately based on expert opinions". She's not the only doomsayer. Chinese media has been reporting the predictions of a self-proclaimed Japanese psychic who suggested a massive earthquake would strike the densely populated Tokyo Bay Area on 26 April. Though the date passed without incident, the prediction triggered immense interest on Chinese social media. Qi Xian Yu, a popular feng shui master and Hong Kong TV personality known as Master Seven, also urged people to stay away from Japan, starting in April. Japan's Cabinet Office took to X earlier this month to explain that modern technology has yet to be able to accurately predict an earthquake. Meanwhile Yoshihiro Murai, governor of Miyagi prefecture, which was hit hard during the 2011 quake, spoke out against the impact of superstitious beliefs on Japan's tourism. "I believe it is a serious issue when the spread of highly unscientific rumours on social media had an effect on tourism," he said during a press conference. Despite all the social media static, it's unclear whether the fearmongering is working - Japan remains a wildly popular destination. Samantha Tang, from Hong Kong, is one of those who has shelved her trip to the country. Originally she planned to visit Wakayama, a beach destination about 80km south of Osaka, in August, but has gotten cold feet. "Everyone says so much about an earthquake coming," said the 34-year-old yoga teacher, who says she has gone on vacation to Japan at least once a year since the end of the pandemic. Another Hong Kong traveller, Oscar Chu, 36, who usually visits Japan multiple times per year, has changed his mind this year as well. "It's best to avoid it. It's going to be really troublesome if an earthquake indeed happens," he said. He explained he wasn't too worried specifically about being in an earthquake but was wary of the ensuing travel chaos and flight disruptions. Still, plenty of tourists are undeterred. Japan has seen the number of visitors surge to a record-breaking 10.5 million in the first three months of 2025, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation. Meanwhile, 2.36 million mainland Chinese travellers visited Japan in the first quarter of this year, up 78 percent from last year, the tourism body said. During the same period, some 647,600 Hongkongers visited Japan, marking an overall 3.9 percent year-on-year growth. And that's only tourists from East Asia. In March alone, 343,000 Americans visited Japan, along with 68,000 Canadians and 85,000 Australians. Vic Shing from Hong Kong is among those who haven't changed their plans. Although he has heard about "the prophecy," he said he remained committed to his Japan vacation this year. He is visiting Tokyo and Osaka in June. "Earthquake predictions have never been accurate," he said. Even if one did hit, "Japan has encountered many massive earthquakes before. It shouldn't be too bad when it comes to disaster management," he added. - CNN
