Snow wreaks havoc throughout Japan

Japan's cold snap continued to see snowfall across the country on Monday, particularly affecting coastal regions on the Sea of Japan, the weather agency said.

According to Japan's Meteorological Agency, a cold air mass has been gripping Japan since late last week with heavy snowfall overnight wreaking havoc on the nation's roads, severely disrupting local and intercity Shinkansen train services, as well as halting flights from regional airports.

In Fukushima Prefecture, home to a stricken nuclear reactor in Japan's northeast, 1.6 meters of snow was recorded on Monday and 1.4 meters in a town in Hiroshima Prefecture.

Local authorities said that in Nichinan, Tottori Prefecture, an elderly women died after a landslide triggered by the snow hit her house.

The death toll has risen since Sunday when authorities confirmed that in Tochigi Prefecture a man was killed in a weather-related traffic accident, and in Niigata Prefecture two people were killed after falling into an irrigation channel after a snow removal operation.

One man was also reportedly found dead underneath a snow plow in Niigata.

More than 100 passengers were stranded on a Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train bound for Shin-Osaka Station and had to stay on the train overnight at Okayama Station in western Japan, local media said, as railway equipment had failed due to the snow.

Japan's two top carries, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines canceled flights on Monday due to the severe conditions and Shinkansen bullet train services saw operations slowed between Hamamatsu and Shin-Osaka stations on the Tokaido line. Many local commuters in central Japan were also affected, local reports stated.