Heavy snow continued to fall in some parts of the country Monday, mainly along the Sea of Japan coast, as a cold air mass chilled the archipelago.
The heavy snow had caused cancellations of 101 domestic flights and two international flights as of 3 p.m., airline officials said.
The Meteorological Agency issued heavy-snow warnings for prefectures in the west-central part of the country, where heavy snow is expected through today.
In a 24-hour period to 3 p.m. Monday, 61 cm of snow fell on Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, while the village of Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, received 45 cm. Snow also blanketed Kyushu.
Accumulation had topped 1.5 meters as of 3 p.m. in Aomori, Yamagata, Niigata and Fukui prefectures.
Snow fell in usually temperate areas in western and southwestern Japan, with accumulation reaching 13 cm in Nagasaki and 8 cm in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, at 3 p.m.
Excluding southern subtropical islands, temperatures dipped below zero nationwide. In the morning, the mercury fell to minus 25.6 degrees in Hokkaido's Asahikawa. It was minus 2.4 in central Tokyo, the lowest so far this winter in the capital, and minus 0.4 in Kagoshima.
A negative 36-degree cold air mass moved southward at an altitude of 5,500 meters along the Sea of Japan coast and is expected to stay over the Sanin-Hokuriku region until today.
Between 60 cm and 80 cm of snow is expected to fall by this evening in the mountainous areas of the Hokuriku region along the Sea of Japan coast.