Photo/Illutration Pedestrians on a street near JR Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Feb. 11 (Naoko Kawamura)

Heavy snow was forecast for Tokyo and many parts of the Kanto region, as well as Nagano and Yamanashi prefectures in central Japan, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning that transportation in the capital and nearby areas may be thrown into chaos.

Snow was forecast to fall from the afternoon of Feb. 13 until the following morning.

Snow or slushy rain was forecast in many areas on Feb. 14 as a low-pressure system that developed in the south of the Japanese archipelago is moving eastward over the Izu island chain south of Tokyo.

The region also experienced heavy snow on Feb. 10.

Agency officials cautioned that the snowfall could be heavy enough to issue an alert if the mercury falls lower than projected or precipitation is higher than initially forecast.

The agency offered the following 24-hour projections for snowfall until 6 a.m. on Feb. 14: up to 30 centimeters for Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures; up to 20 cm for areas spanning Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture, Tama in western Tokyo and Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture; up to 15 cm for mountainous areas of northern Kanto; up to 8 cm for Tokyo’s 23 wards and other parts of the Kanto plain.

The projection until 6 a.m. on Feb. 15 was 1 to 5 cm of snow for the Kanto region.