Typhoon batters Japan with record rain, killing one

Typhoon Nanmadol brought ferocious winds and record rainfall to parts of Japan on Monday, as one of the biggest storms to hit the country in years killed at least one person, disrupted transport and forced some manufacturers to suspend operations.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delayed his departure to New York, where he is due to deliver a speech at the U.N. General Assembly, until Tuesday to monitor the impact of the storm, media reported.

“We need to remain highly vigilant for heavy rains, gales, high waves and storm surges,” a Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) official told a news conference.

Japan’s 14th typhoon of the season made landfall near Kagoshima city late on Sunday before battering the western island of Kyushu and roaring into the main island of Honshu.

A river in Kyushu’s Miyazaki prefecture overflowed, flooding fields and roads, footage from state broadcaster NHK showed. Other video showed a riverside house hanging over a torrent, roofs ripped off buildings and billboards toppled.

NHK said one man was killed when his car was submerged by a flooded river and firefighters were trying to determine if a man in his 40s was inside a hut that was buried by a landslide.

At least 69 people were injured, NHK said.

About 340,000 households, most of them in Kyushu, were without electricity early on Monday, the trade ministry said, while Kyushu Railway Co 9142.T, said it had halted operations on Kyushu and Japan Airline Co Ltd 9201.T and ANA Holdings 9202.T cancelled about 800 flights, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The storm was centred on Yamaguchi prefecture, on the western tip of Honshu, as of 0200 GMT and was heading northeast at about 15 kilometres per hour along the north coast, the JMA said.

The storm would track the coast to the north of Honshu into Tuesday before moving out over the Pacific, the agency projected.

Up to 400 mm (15.75 inches) of rain was expected in central Japan’s Tokai region, the nation’s industrial heartland, over the next 24 hours, it said.

Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T was among manufacturers that said they would idle production at some factories due to the storm, but there were no reports of major damage to industry.

Intermittent bouts of heavy rain lashed Tokyo but businesses in the capital were largely operating as normal.

Most schools were closed on Monday anyway for a public holiday.