These revelations didn’t come until the end of an article entitled “Rescuers lose contact with nine climbers.” Is this intentional manipulation of the news?  don’t know. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
 
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“Police have been busy with search-and-rescue operations in the mountains since the start of the year, as many climbers went missing or were stranded after blizzards and cold temperatures hit a wide area of Japan.
 
“The unusually cold weather in northern Japan is expected to continue until early February after cold snaps produced record snowfall in 18 locations last month, the Meteorological Agency said.
 
“Temperatures in eastern Japan are likely to be colder than average as well, the agency warned Friday.
 
“Most of the record snowfall took place in Hokkaido, which might be in store for about a week of extreme cold starting Wednesday. Along the Sea of Japan coast, heavy snow is predicted in northern and eastern Japan, with snowfall in the west projected to be slightly above average.
 
“In December, record amounts of snow were recorded at 18 of the agency’s 330 or so monitoring points following a series of cold snaps.
 
“Average temperatures for the month fell below normal in other parts of the nation as well, with the mercury in northern and eastern regions 1.4 degrees lower and western Japan 1.5 lower.”
 
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20130105x1.html