Typhoon Shanshan and torrential rains kill five in Japan

Photo: Kyodo News Associated Press Farmland along a river was flooded by heavy rains caused by the typhoon in Yufu, Oita Prefecture, western Japan.

Hiroshi Hiyama – Agence France-Presse in Oita

Published August 29

• Asia

Typhoon Shanshan, which is slowly making its way across Japan on Friday, dumped torrential rains and killed five people, local authorities and media reported.

The typhoon, one of the most powerful in decades to hit the archipelago, has weakened but still packed winds of more than 126 km/h as it slowly made its way across the country of 125 million people.

Even before the typhoon made landfall, a landslide triggered by heavy rains killed three members of a family Tuesday night in Aichi Prefecture on the central Pacific coast.

And two other people were killed, including a man last seen on a small boat on the southern island of Kyushu, and another whose two-story house partially collapsed on the neighboring main island of Shikoku, according to media reports.

At least 81 other people were injured, many by flying glass, after the typhoon shattered windows and ripped roof tiles off when it hit Kyushu on Thursday with gusts of up to 252 km/h.

Authorities have issued a maximum alert for flooding, wave-swamping and landslides in several regions, with more than five million people urged to evacuate.

The city of Ninomiya, southwest of Tokyo, urged residents to take “immediate measures” to ensure their safety, such as moving to higher floors of their homes after a local river burst its banks.

Parts of the southern island of Kyushu have seen record rainfall for August, with the city of Misato seeing 791 mm of water in 48 hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

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Power outages have affected more than 250,000 homes in total in Kyushu, but the utility operator said only 6,500 were still without power on Friday as engineers repaired damaged transmission lines.

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Overnight, many highways were completely or partially closed in several regions, Japanese media reported.

Shinkansen bullet trains remained suspended in Kyushu and were also halted on the main Tokyo-Osaka route, with operators warning of disruptions elsewhere.

Japan Airlines and ANA had already announced the cancellation of more than 600 flights on Friday, after canceling a similar number the day before, affecting nearly 50,000 passengers.

Photo: Kyodo News Associated Press A road is covered in mud and rocks in Yufu, Oita Prefecture, western Japan.

Factories at a standstill

Auto giant Toyota has been forced to suspend production at all 14 of its factories in Japan. Rivals Nissan and Honda have shut down their Kyushu factories, as have chipmakers including Tokyo Electron, according to media reports.

Kyushu is a major semiconductor manufacturing hub, with Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC opening a factory there in February.

Shanshan hit Japan after Typhoon Ampil in mid-August brought heavy rain and disrupted hundreds of train journeys in Japan without causing significant damage.

Typhoons in the region are forming closer to shore than before, intensifying more quickly and staying over land longer because of climate change, according to a study published in July.

Another study published Thursday by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) showed that climate change accelerated Typhoon Gaemi, which killed dozens of people in the Philippines, Taiwan and China earlier this year.