Damages from the recent heavy rains that lashed Kyushu and other regions of the country have exceeded 100 billion yen in the farming and other industries, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced Wednesday.
The stagnant seasonal rain front that has caused the continual downpours has led to 105.8 billion yen in damages, a number expected to rise considerably as the Tohoku region is currently experiencing severe flooding.
Kumamoto Prefecture accounts for about half of the damages cited by the ministry, as Kyushu bore the main brunt of torrential rains that fell intermittently from early to mid July. Overall, 41 prefectures in Shikoku, Chubu and other regions have reported losses.
Crop damage, mainly for tobacco leaf and rice, totaling about 2.7 billion yen occurred over a swath of 27 prefectures. A total of 14,100 agriculture-related locations reported damage, such as flooding of cropland or destruction of roads, totaling 41.8 billion yen.
Additionally, forestry-related damages totaling 49.6 billion yen were reported due to landslides that wiped out mountain roads and other calamities. In the fisheries industry, 900 million yen in losses was confirmed from such occurrences as large quantities of fallen trees and other debris flowing into fishing ports and making them unusable.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that damages in the three industries from a single typhoon or strong rains have exceeded 100 billion yen.
Typhoon No. 19, which lashed East Japan in November last year, caused 344.6 billion yen in damages. That followed the heavy rains of July 2018 in West Japan, producing losses totaling 340.9 billion yen.
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