Heavy rain emergency warning issued for South-western Japan

August 8, 2025

Tokyo: Japan’s weather agency issued the nation’s top-level heavy rain emergency warning on Friday morning for Kirishima in Kagoshima Prefecture, urging maximum vigilance against landslides and floods in low-lying areas and rivers prone to overflow.

The warning—the first of 2025 under Japan’s five-tier disaster alert system—follows record rainfall in Kirishima, with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reporting 107.5 mm of rain in one hour up to 3 a.m. local time and a 12-hour total surpassing 480 mm, roughly 1.8 times August’s average. The JMA noted that torrential rain is forecast to persist in Kyushu, including Kagoshima, through Sunday.

The agency projected 24-hour rainfall totals up to Saturday morning of around 200 mm in southern Kyushu and 120 mm in northern Kyushu. Officials warned that dangerous conditions may already exist in affected areas, urging residents to stay alert for evacuation orders and take precautions against landslides, flash floods, and potential infrastructure disruptions.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Hokuriku region on the Sea of Japan coast continued to experience heavy rainfall, with warnings of landslides and flooding in low-lying areas as rivers rise. This comes as parts of Hokuriku recover from a powerful earthquake earlier in the year. The Hokuriku Shinkansen was temporarily suspended for more than five hours between Nagano and Kanazawa due to the downpour.

A low-pressure system moving northeast over the Sea of Japan is driving the unstable weather, with the front expected to shift southward through Friday and linger across eastern to western Japan. The JMA cautioned that additional heavy rainfall and thunderstorms could occur as moist air feeds the system, keeping conditions highly unstable across a broad region.