Heavy snow fell on a wide swathe of eastern Japan, covering Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures including Yamanashi and Nagano on Wednesday.

The snowfalls had led to delays in railway services and traffic trouble on the road since early Wednesday morning.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), accumulated snowfalls in some parts of northern Niigata prefecture had reached around 200 centimeters as of 15:00 p.m. local time.

The agency forecast that heavy snow would not abate until evening in those regions.