Record eighth typhoon hits Japan

The most powerful typhoon to barrel into Japan’s Pacific coastline in a decade made landfall on Saturday, unleashing gales and blinding sheets of rain that grounded planes, flooded homes and set off mudslides. Two people were reported dead and five others missing.

Ma-on, which means horse saddle in Cantonese, was the record eighth typhoon to reach Japan’s shores this year. On Friday, Meteorological Agency officials said the brunt of the tempest — which had sustained winds of 162kph — was stronger than any other to hit the eastern coast in 10 years.

By late on Saturday, the storm had passed, veering eastward over the Pacific Ocean.

The agency forecast about 250mm of rainfall through Sunday along the eastern seaboard of the main island of Honshu. It warned of high tides and landslides due to unstable, rain-soaked soil.

Hardest hit were Tokyo and the central prefectures (states) of Shizuoka and Aichi, where wind-whipped rain turned streets into streams, mudslides damaged homes and gusts ripped trees from the ground. Within a couple of hours, the storm had passed.

A National Police Agency spokesperson, who declined to be identified, said a 55-year-old man was crushed to death when a landslide buried his home in Kamakura, south-west of Tokyo. A 72-year-old man in Kamogun, located in Shizuoka prefecture about 150km west of the capital, was struck and killed by a toppled electricity pole.

Another death, previously blamed on the storm, was later found to be unrelated.

Five people in eastern and central Japan were missing, including a 74-year-old man who may have fallen into a rain-swollen river while delivering newspapers early on Saturday, the police official said.

At least five others were treated at hospitals for broken bones and other injuries, the official said.

The storm paralysed plane, train and ferry services, stranding thousands of travellers.

Public broadcaster NHK said more than 400 domestic and international flights and most ferry services along the east coast had been cancelled. In central and eastern Japan, railway operators had suspended bullet and local train services and roads were closed to traffic, NHK said.

Rescuers with boats plucked dozens of residents from waterlogged homes in Shizuoka prefecture, officials said. Authorities had ordered evacuations in Shizuoka, Mie, Wakayama, Nara and Osaka prefectures and about 1 500 people had left their homes for public shelters.

Hundreds of homes had been damaged by mudslides or floods, police said.

The downpour was so severe that it leaked through the retractable roof at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo and forced officials at the Japan Open professional tennis tournament to stop play temporarily and mop up the court.

In Suzuka, organisers of the Japanese formula-one grand prix closed the circuit on Saturday, cancelling the regular pre-qualifying and qualifying sessions, which are scheduled to take place before the race on Sunday morning, a first in formula one. Suzuka is about 270km west of Tokyo.

The storm comes a week after Tropical Storm Meari tore through Japan, killing 22 people and injuring at least 80 others.

Downgraded from a typhoon after hitting the southern island of Okinawa, Meari caused floods, triggered deadly landslides and forced about 10 000 people to evacuate their homes.

This year’s typhoons are the most on record since the Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1951. Japan was hit by six typhoons in 1990, when the previous record was set. — Sapa-AP