Fire Burning in Southwestern Japan Damages 170 Homes and Forces Evacuations

Smoke rises over buildings after a fire in Oita, southern Japan, on Nov. 19, 2025. Kyodo News via APTOKYO—Firefighters and army helicopters battled a fire Wednesday that burned through a neighborhood of old wooden houses in a fishing town in southwestern Japan, killing one person, injuring another and forcing more than 170 people to evacuate.A man in his 70s was unaccounted for and firefighters later found a body, possibly of the missing man, and a woman in her 50s suffered a minor injury, the Oita prefecture disaster response team said.