On Thursday, extreme downpours swept through Japan’s north-central prefectures of Ishikawa and Toyama, unleashing catastrophic flooding and destructive landslides that shut down key transport routes and left dozens of residents trapped in submerged homes and stranded vehicles across the region.
In response to the rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its highest-level Level 5 heavy rain warning for multiple affected districts across the two prefectures, immediately calling on all local residents to enact urgent safety protocols to avoid harm from imminent flood and landslide risks.
By the end of Thursday, rainfall intensity had decreased significantly across the impacted zones, allowing the JMA to downgrade the alert to a lower, medium-level warning. Even as the immediate downpour eased, agency officials stressed that residual risks remained high, warning residents that additional precipitation and new landslide activity could still occur through Friday morning.
Forecasting data from the JMA projects total accumulated rainfall could reach as high as 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) across the Kaga and Noto regions between the onset of the storm and Friday morning. In line with the national weather agency’s alert, prefectural-level authorities issued evacuation orders and guidance for more than 380,000 residents, urging them to relocate to designated higher-ground emergency shelters immediately.
Footage captured by Japan’s national public broadcaster NHK showed emergency response teams conducting life-saving rescues in Himi City, Toyama Prefecture. Rescuers waded through chest-deep floodwaters to extract stranded residents, who were ferried to safety aboard inflatable rubber rescue rafts. Along inundated city roads, dozens of vehicles that stalled after their engines ingested floodwater were left abandoned by their owners.
In neighboring Ishikawa Prefecture, located just west of Toyama, floodwaters cut off road access to 270 residential properties across three local municipalities, completely isolating the communities. As of the latest official update, however, prefectural disaster management officials have confirmed no reports of injuries or fatalities among the isolated residents. Beyond flooding, the heavy rain also triggered multiple small landslides across Ishikawa that forced the permanent or temporary closure of dozens of regional roads.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, Japan’s top government spokesperson, confirmed in a public briefing that multiple rivers across both prefectures had spilled past their banks, inundating hundreds of residential properties. Echoing local officials, Kihara also confirmed that no injuries or deaths had been reported in connection with the flooding as of Thursday evening.
Regional power provider Hokuriku Electric Power Co. reported that the severe weather knocked out electricity service to more than 1,000 homes across both Ishikawa and Toyama, with repair crews standing by to restore service once floodwaters recede and hazard risks subside.
This latest extreme rain event comes less than a month after another devastating flood disaster in Japan: earlier this July, heavy downpours and widespread flooding in Chiba Prefecture, located just east of Tokyo, claimed the lives of 13 people.