The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a Level 5 heavy rain warning for parts of Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures on Thursday after torrential rains struck the north-central region, with forecasts of up to 20 centimeters of additional rainfall in the Kaga and Noto areas through Friday morning. The prefectural governments advised more than 380,000 people to move to safer ground as flooding from overflowing rivers inundated homes and stalled vehicles on submerged roads. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara stated that several rivers had overflowed in the two prefectures, though officials reported no injuries from the flooding or related landslides.
Footage broadcast by NHK showed rescue teams using rubber boats to reach stranded residents in knee-high waters in Himi city of Toyama prefecture, where multiple vehicles were abandoned after flooding halted traffic. Across Ishikawa prefecture to the west, 270 homes were flooded in three municipalities while landslides blocked several roads, according to local authorities. The Hokuriku Electric Power Co. reported outages at more than 1,000 homes in the affected prefectures as the severe weather continued.
A Meteorological Research Institute report released in 2022 found that the annual number of cases of torrential rain exceeding 130 millimeters in a three-hour period more than doubled between 1976 and 2020. Researchers from Kyoto University and Japan Meteorological Corp. concluded in a 2025 paper that a 1-degree Celsius rise in temperature corresponds to a 7 percent increase in precipitation intensity. Japan’s average temperature has climbed 1.44 degrees Celsius over the past century, with the rate of warming accelerating since the 1990s.
The downpours arrived weeks after heavy rain and flooding in Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo earlier this month left 13 people dead, an episode that saw 367 millimeters of rain fall in 12 hours in one urban ward. Japan Meteorological Agency assessments indicate that the frequency of extreme daily precipitation of 100 millimeters or more has roughly doubled since the 1980s in many parts of the country. Projections from the agency’s 2025 climate report show that under a 2-degree Celsius warming scenario, the national average frequency of such extreme events would increase by a factor of 1.8 to 2.3.
Government disaster response headquarters in both Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures worked to assess damage and coordinate rescues as bands of heavy rain clouds persisted over the Hokuriku region. The agency also warned of unstable atmospheric conditions that could bring additional heavy rain to areas from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south through Friday. Officials maintained the focus on immediate safety measures for residents in low-lying and landslide-prone zones.
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