Tens of thousands of troops, police officers and other rescue workers have worked their way through mud and debris in the hardest-hit riverside towns to evacuate residents.
For more than a week, Japan has been battered by floods driven by torrential rains, spurring widespread evacuations and the deaths of at least 58 people by Wednesday. Many people remained missing.
Tens of thousands of troops, police officers and other rescue workers have been mobilized to work their way through mud and debris in the hardest-hit towns along the Kuma River — known as the “raging river” because it is joined by another river just upstream and often floods — in Japan’s southernmost main island, Kyushu.
More flooding and landslides were expected on Wednesday as the rains, some of the heaviest the country has experienced in decades, moved into central Japan. There were reports of swollen rivers, mudslides and damaged homes and roads in two mountainous central prefectures as the authorities issued emergency warnings.
NHK television footage showed swollen water in the Hida River tearing into the embankment and destroying a national highway.
In southern Japan, the death toll continued to rise as rescue workers performed more search-and-rescue operations. The authorities lowered rainfall warnings for the region but said the threat of further flooding and mudslides remained.
