Heavy rain in western Japan disrupts shinkansen bullet train services

Heavy rain in western and southwestern Japan continued to disrupt shinkansen bullet train services on Saturday, affecting travelers on the first day of a long weekend and prompting the weather agency to caution against further rainfall.

All bullet train services between Hakata in southwestern Japan and Tokyo were briefly halted in the morning. Services connecting Osaka and Tokyo also temporarily halted later in the day as rain gauges topped maximum safe levels in Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures, operator Central Japan Railway said.

Some travelers stranded at stations on the first day of the three-day weekend complained that public transportation disruptions appear to have become commonplace.

“It seems like everything stops whenever there’s rain lately,” said Kazuhiro Yamane, 52, as he tried to get home to Yamaguchi Prefecture from Nagoya Station in central Japan.

A 47-year-old woman who traveled to Nagoya with her daughter said she had to wait more than an hour until the train departed Tokyo Station.

“I didn’t expect it will stop due to rain,” she said.

The morning suspension started from a section in the Sanyo Shinkansen Line, operated by West Japan Railway. The Tokaido Shinkansen Line, operated by JR Central, halted operations to prevent bullet trains from being stranded between stations for extended periods.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said weather conditions are expected to improve into Sunday, as a low-pressure system and front that brought heavy rainfall heads east, but warned of risks from overflowing rivers and landslides.

In Hiroshima, western Japan, a man in his 70s went missing after he decided to check a boat moored on a river.

In some parts of Nagasaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan, more than 300 millimeters of rain had been recorded in the 24 hours through Saturday morning, the agency said.