The rainy season has started in most parts of Honshu as well as northern Kyushu and Shikoku, the Meteorological Agency said Thursday.
The wet season was declared in the Chugoku, Kinki, Tokai, and Kanto-Koshin regions of Honshu. With Thursday's announcement, the entire country is now in the rainy season except for northern Honshu and Hokkaido, which has no rainy season.
A front stretching from China to Kyushu has brought cloudy or rainy weather to a large area of western and eastern Japan, and it is expected to continue for the next few days, the agency said.
The announcement came three days earlier than usual in Shikoku, five days earlier in the northern Kyushu, Chugoku and Kinki regions, and six days earlier in the Tokai and Kanto-Koshin regions.
Southern Kyushu entered the rainy season Wednesday, and Okinawa and the Amami islands in Kagoshima Prefecture in early May.