Further downpours were predicted to pound Kyushu after swathes of the southwestern island were devastated last week by overflowing rivers -- sweeping away roads, houses and schools and forcing thousands of people into makeshift shelters. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a visit to Estonia that was originally planned as a last leg of his European tour, which included the G20 summit in Germany, to come back to Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon to deal with the disaster. Three more bodies were found Wednesday in southwest Japan, potentially raising the death toll from last week’s heavy rains to 28, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the hardest-hit areas.
The death toll from recent torrential rain and flooding in Kyushu in southern Japan rises to 25.