Record snow disrupts Japan

Hundreds of thousands of homes were without power in central and western Japan today after a record snowfall that also forced the suspension of train services and closed an international airport.

Some 470,000 households in Niigata prefecture have no electricity, probably because the snow and strong winds caused the power lines to short-circuit, said Atsushi Ishii, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power. He said the company was investigating.

So far, 92 inches of snow has fallen in the town of Tsunan in Niigata and 86 inches has fallen on Shirakawa Town in central Gifu prefecture, said Kenji Kobayashi, a researcher for the Meteorological Agency. The falls had surpassed records in those regions.

Train services in Niigata, about 160 miles north-west of Tokyo, were suspended due to power outages, according to Junpei Yamauchi, a JR East Japan spokesman.

All local and express services as well as some bullet train services in the area were halted, while some night trains linking cities on the west coast will be cancelled, Yamauchi said.

Central Japan International Airport in Aichi prefecture said it would keep its only runway closed until this afternoon because of the snow, said airport spokesman Mitsuoki Hikota.

Fourteen international and 104 domestic flights have been cancelled and eight international flights have been diverted to other airports, Hikota said.

Kansai Electric Power said that about 700,000 households in western Japan were without power for about 40 minutes this morning after two power generators at its nuclear power station in Fukui prefecture shut down.

Masaki Todatake, a spokesman for the Osaka-based power company said heavy snow may have caused the generators to shut down automatically. Power had been restored, and the company was investigating.