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Snowfall disrupt traffic in Tokyo, Kanto region+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Jan. 22_(Kyodo) _ The first snowfall of the season for Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region, experienced by the area on Saturday, continued to disrupt air, railroad and expressway traffic Sunday.
A total of 20 domestic flights originating from Tokyo's Haneda airport were canceled. Weather also resulted in 10 international flight cancellations, as some flights scheduled for Saturday were delayed to Sunday.
The snow forced Narita airport, Tokyo's main international gateway, to close one of its two runways to serve as an emergency aircraft parking apron. Some 10,000 passengers were forced to stay overnight at its terminals.
Train services on JR Keihin Tohoku, Nanbu and Shonan Shinjuku lines linking Tokyo and surrounding areas were partly suspended, affecting about 1,600 passengers.
Some expressways in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture were partially closed, owing to road surface freezing.
On Saturday night, downtown Tokyo had the area's largest snow cover of the day with 9 centimeters, the heaviest since January 1998, when snow depth was at marked 16 cm in the city center, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, saw its heaviest January snow since 1909, and Yokohama and Chiba experienced their heaviest since January 2001, it said.
According to the Tokyo Fire Department, 125 people were injured in Tokyo from Saturday to Sunday due to fallout from the snow, causing many to slip on the streets.
Until Saturday, the Tokyo area had been spared the season's record snowfall which has claimed the lives of more than 100 people, mostly in northern Japan and Sea of Japan coastal areas.
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