Local politician missing as heavy rain sweeps Sea of Japan coast

Tokyo, July 13

Torrential rain pounded regions facing the Sea of Japan, leaving a city assembly member in Toyama prefecture missing, local media reported on Thursday.

Police are searching for Nobuhiko Akaike, a member of the Nanto assembly, on Thursday, fearing he may have been caught in a mudslide when he was moving around a neighborhood in the city of Nanto, Xinhua quoted Kyodo News as saying.

The prefectures of Ishikawa and Toyama on the Sea of Japan coast saw bands of heavy rain clouds develop on Wednesday night due to the seasonal rain front situated over the Japanese archipelago, said Kyodo News.

Ishikawa prefecture logged a record six-hour rainfall total of 199 mm during the night in Kahoku, while Toyama registered a downpour of 170.5 mm in Kamiichi, another record high, it added.

A Nanto resident reported a mudslide at around 2.10 a.m. on Thursday, and a house was found destroyed nearby.

Mudslides also cut off roads in neighboring Oyabe, leaving 41 households and their 101 total residents isolated, Kyodo News said, citing local police.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has forecast heavy downpours with thunder in western Japan, particularly regions facing the Sea of Japan, on Thursday and in eastern Japan through Friday.