More heavy snow expected in parts of Japan after 800 vehicles trapped on expressway

O!M!G! Japan is beginning to look like Canada!!!

The 6-kilometer traffic jam happened after two trailers got stuck in the snow Wednesday

One trailer got stuck, another spastic trucker tried to pass him and got stuck besides him, blocking the entire road. Couldn't reverse because there were a long queue of other numpties right up his backside. They then probably just went to sleep in their cabs until someone came along to fix their incompetence.

Just guessing this based on seeing it happen all the time, every bloody winter.

When will global warming come to the rescue?

Japan manages such weather conditions better than *hem hem *United Kingdom.

When you have 10 army guys using shovels to hand-clear an expressway of an amount of snow that looks completely plowable, either the photo is staged, or resources are seriously lacking or misallocated.

Japan manages such weather conditions better than *hem hem *United Kingdom.

Places that snow regularly handle snow better than places where it doesn't snow regularly. Even in Japan, areas like Hokkaido and the Japanese alps handle it much better than Tokyo or West Japan where a little snow can cause major disruption.

Not sure what 'hem hem' means or your use of asterisks.

When will global warming come to the rescue?

Average temperatures in Japan are now about 2C higher than they were 100 years ago, and annual snowfall in snowy areas about 15cm less.

It is coming to "the rescue".

But I appreciate that your post is just a derivation of the "it's cold today, so global warming is a myth" line than global warming deniers issue at least once a year.

Have you no snow-removers inJapan?

Quick! Fly a few from Canada!!

I just left Japan and now in Canada and the weather since my arrival has been slowly but steadily getting warmer. I am really shocked by seeing this news, really.

 areas like Hokkaido and the Japanese alps handle it much better than Tokyo or West Japan

This is 100% true, but the best thing about it is that it is Tokyo, and the Japanese government money printer, who actually pay for all them snowploughs and massive truck-sized snowblowers and road scrapers you see in the Japan Alps or in Yukiguni, Yuzawa/Nozawa Onsen way.

It's certainly not the locals paying. There is no way a sleepy inaka town with a population of 3,000 people, Otari mura as an example, 50% of whom are over 65, can afford 300,000 yen a year per resident for snow clearing. They are doing it with "go-setsu chitai" (heavy snowzone) grants from central government. Despite paying for lots of snowploughs in northern Nagano, Niigata etc. there are few in Tokyo, so snow in Tokyo will usually shut the Shutokou Met Expressway for a couple of days. Heavy snow in south Nagano even will usually cause disruptions for "Kita Azabu", the colloquial name for Karuizawa. The expressway that goes by there is steep, twisty, and has multiple tunnels, but does not get the machinery Yuzawa does.