The heavy rain that pounded western Japan in the summer has been picked as the top domestic news story of 2018 by senior editors of Kyodo News and its member or subscriber newspapers and broadcasters.

(1) Deadly rain disaster in western Japan, typhoons, heat

An approaching typhoon triggered heavy rainfalls in early July, causing severe flooding and mudslides that killed more than 220 people and damaged about 17,000 houses. The prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama and Ehime were hit the hardest. Meanwhile, lasting summer heat scorched Japan, with the city of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo hitting a national record high 41.1 C, also in July.

(2) Finance Ministry tampers with documents linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's favoritism scandal

The Finance Ministry admitted in March to have tampered with documents over a 2016 cut-price state land sale to a nationalist school operator with ties to Abe's wife, Akie. References to Abe and his wife were removed from the documents. Abe has denied having played a role in the land sale discount of about 800 million yen ($7.2 million) and also of ordering the rewriting of documents.

(From left, Yasunori Kagoike, former chief of the nationalist school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, former senior bureaucrat Nobuhisa Sagawa, who has been recognized as having "set the direction" of the document tampering, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie)

(3) Nissan chairman Ghosn arrested over alleged financial misconduct

Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in November along with Nissan Representative Director Greg Kelly over alleged understatement of Ghosn's remuneration in security reports presented to Japanese regulators. The two, later removed from their posts, were indicted on the charge, along with Nissan. Both Ghosn and Kelly have denied the allegations.

(4) AUM Shinrikyo cult founder executed with followers

AUM Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara, who was convicted of numerous murders including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, and 12 former members of the cult were executed in July following the conclusion of trials that had lasted for more than 20 years. A total of 29 people died in a series of crimes carried out by the doomsday cult in the 1990s.

(Undated file photo shows AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult founder Shoko Asahara, left, and Yoshihiro Inoue, a former senior member of the cult involved in the 1995 deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. The two were hanged on July 6, 2018, along with five other senior members of the cult.)

(5) Hokkaido quake kills 41, triggers prefecture-wide black out

A magnitude-6.7 earthquake hit the northernmost main island of Hokkaido in September, leaving 41 people dead and over 19,000 buildings damaged. A local power company's key coal-fired plant shut down, triggering a series of emergency stops at other plants that left around 2.95 million households in the prefecture temporarily without power, in the first such blackout incident in Japan.

(6) Abe re-elected as ruling party leader, shows eagerness to amend Japan's postwar Constitution

Abe was re-elected for a third consecutive term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September, putting him on track to become Japan's longest-serving prime minister. His current term will end in 2021. Abe expressed his strong desire to achieve his long-cherished goal to revise the Constitution, which was written during the U.S.-led postwar occupation.

(7) Central, local gov't offices padded disabled employment rate to meet quota

Data manipulation by ministries, agencies and local governments came to light on the numbers of their disabled employees in an attempt to meet legal quotas. Those who were inappropriately counted included people with depression and nearsightedness. In some cases even dead people were counted. The total number padded by central and local governments reached more than 7,000.

(8) Okinawa retracts approval for landfill work required to build U.S. base

Okinawa Prefecture, in line with the will of Gov. Takeshi Onaga who died of cancer in August, retracted its approval for landfill work necessary for the planned relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to a coastal district of Henoko, both in the prefecture. The central government started full-fledged landfill work in the Henoko area in December, despite strong local opposition.

(Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, successor to Onaga, speaks at a rally held in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, on Dec. 15, 2018, to protest against full-fledged offshore landfill work being undertaken by the central Japanese government for the relocation of the Futenma base.)

(9) Honjo wins Nobel Prize for work on cancer therapy

Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo and American James Allison won this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries leading to new approaches in fighting cancer. They found a protein that contributed to the development of an immunotherapeutic drug.

(10) Sports world jolted by series of harassment scandals

Two former coaches of Nihon University's American football team received a lifetime ban from competition over a player's dangerous late tackle that injured an opposing team player in May. Complaints over power harassment followed in boxing and wrestling, as well as gymnastics.

(Former Nihon University American football head coach Masato Uchida, front, and assistant coach Tsutomu Inoue bow in apology during a press conference in Tokyo on May 23, 2018, over a late hit by the team's linebacker during an intercollegiate match.)