storm
Typhoon hits Japan – Warning due to heavy rains
Rain and strong winds in Hamamatsu. photo
© Kyodo News/AP/dpa
Due to an important festival, many people in Japan are currently traveling across the country. A typhoon hit the Izu Peninsula near Tokyo.
A typhoon is moving along Japan’s Pacific coast and has covered large parts of the country with heavy rains. As the television station NHK reported, the eighth typhoon of the season hit the Izu Peninsula near the capital Tokyo and continued north-east.
The national weather agency warned the greater Tokyo area and other regions of the island kingdom of possible landslides, swelling rivers and strong winds. Regional rail and air traffic was affected. The storm hits Japan at a time when many people are traveling for the Buddhist ancestral festival O-Bon.
According to weather forecasts, Typhoon Meari is likely to move north-east across the Pacific on Sunday. Heavy rains also hit Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. There, in the town of Kazuno, river fortifications broke, flooding streets. According to the broadcaster NHK, there was also damage, including in rice fields.
Just a few days ago, heavy rains hit large parts of the island kingdom and caused severe flooding in some cases. As a result of global warming, Japan is experiencing increasingly heavy rain in the Pacific. As a result, landslides are occurring more and more frequently in the very mountainous island state.