The heaviest snow in nine years fell in the northern Kyushu area Thursday, disrupting traffic services and causing road accidents, police reported.
Heavy snow that blanketed a wide area along the Sea of Japan coast and western Japan over the past two days has passed its peak, as the season's coldest air mass moved to the east of the Japanese archipelago Thursday morning, the Meteorological Agency said.
Fukuoka observed a rare accumulation of 14 cm by Thursday morning, meteorological officials said. Snow slowed road and train traffic Thursday, inconveniencing about 400,000 commuters. Sections of expressways across the nation were closed because of the snow.