The death toll rose to 21
A total of 2,080 Self-Defense Forces members, firefighters and others were engaged in rescue work in Fukuoka Prefecture's Asakura, one of the hardest-hit areas in the calamity.
About 180 people were still cut off in Fukuoka and Oita prefectures, including elderly people, following Wednesday's disaster, and around 1,700 people remained in evacuation centers.
Among them, 78-year-old Yoshihide Sasaki said he is suffering from constipation after five days in a shelter. "Living as an evacuee is unbearable for an elderly person. Since my teeth are bad, I want to eat something soft."
The Japan Meteorological Agency said parts of southwestern Japan may see more heavy rain that may result in mudslides.
The police are still investigating a possible link to torrential rain after five bodies were discovered in the Ariake Sea on Saturday, surrounded by Kumamoto and other prefectures and situated several tens of kilometers from the disaster-stricken area.
Since areas along the Chikugo River flowing into the sea include those hit hard by the heavy rain, the bodies may have been washed downstream.
Some schools in the affected area decided to cut short the first semester and move up the start of summer vacation by around 10 days as students face difficulty in commuting to school.
Koki Tokunaga, 11, who attends an elementary school in Asakura, said, "I feel tired because I was cleaning up the mud from the road in front of my house with my family."
In a junior high school in Asakura, around 160 students gathered for a ceremony to mark the end of the semester and offered a moment of silence.
The school principal, Mitsuru Sakai, told the students, "We have learned the importance of everyday life. We can't just be distressed. There may be painful, sad and hard times but let's look up and work hard for reconstruction and resurrection efforts."
Volunteers from in and out of Fukuoka Prefecture started to gather in Asakura to help remove sand and soil from houses following the disaster.
A public official in his 30s said he took a day off from his work and came from Hiroshima Prefecture in western Japan to help out. "Kyushu is my home. It's not just someone else's problem," the Oita native said. Kyushu is the name of the southwestern main island that includes Fukuoka and Oita.
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