The heavy rain that pounded western Japan in the summer has been picked as the top domestic news story of 2018 by senior editors of Kyodo News and its member or subscriber newspapers and broadcasters.(1) Deadly rain disaster in western Japan, typhoons, heatAn approaching typhoon triggered heavy rainfalls in early July, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed more than 220 people and damaged about 17,000 houses. The prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama and Ehime were hit the hardest. Meanwhile, lasting summer heat scorched Japan, with the city of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture near To…READ FULL ARTICLE
