A powerful typhoon has been approaching the country’s Pacific coast, bringing torrential rain, violent winds and a heightened risk of landslides across the Kanto region and other parts of the east, the weather agency said.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) yesterday warned that conditions could deteriorate rapidly as Typhoon Dujuan was forecast to pass close to the Tokyo metropolitan area later in the day.
Heavy rain has already drenched the Izu Islands and parts of Japan’s Pacific coast, with some locations recording more than 300mm of rainfall since Saturday, prompting authorities to issue the highest-level landslide emergency warning for the town of Oshima in the Izu Islands, about 110km south of Tokyo.
The JMA earlier predicted that downpours could intensify from yesterday as the typhoon nears the Kanto region, an area that includes Tokyo and surrounding prefectures.
At the Asian Games in central Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, organisers postponed the equestrian eventing competition until today due to the approaching typhoon.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s departure for New York to attend the UN General Assembly was delayed by four hours because of the storm, with the government saying she would now leave Tokyo at 11pm Japan time.
Authorities cautioned that linear rain bands could form over Kanto and central Japan, sharply raising the risk of flash floods and other rain-related disasters.
Linear bands, which have become a growing concern in Japan in recent years, can dump extraordinary amounts of rain over a narrow area for several hours.
Typhoon Dujuan comes amid a year of extreme weather events around the world, with unusually intense rainfall, flooding and tropical cyclones affecting regions from East Asia to North America and Europe. — Reuters
