After Typhoon Shanshan, millions of people were evacuated

Although weakening, Typhoon Shanshan, which is slowly moving towards Japan, is still causing many fears on Friday, August 29. One of the most powerful typhoons to hit the archipelago in decades, it brought torrential rains and is still generating winds of more than 126 kilometers per hour.

It has so far killed six people, according to authorities and local media. Even before the typhoon made landfall, three members of the same family were killed in a landslide triggered by heavy rains on Tuesday afternoon in the Aichi department on the Pacific coast in central Japan.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed four deaths and said that in one case “The link with the typhoon was still being studied”and said two other people were presumed dead or missing.

At least 81 other people were injured, many by broken glass after the typhoon shattered windows and ripped tiles from roofs as it slammed into Kyushu on Thursday, with gusts reaching up to 252 kilometres (155 miles) away.

Unprecedented rains for the month of August

Authorities have issued a maximum alert for flooding, submersion by waves and landslides in several regions, and more than five million people have been urged to evacuate.

The city of Ninomiya, southwest of Tokyo, urged residents to take “immediate measures” to ensure their safety, advising them in particular, following the flooding of a local river, to go up to the upper floors of their home.

Parts of the southern island of Kyushu experienced record levels of rainfall in August, with the city of Misato recording 791 millimetres of rain in 48 hours, Japan’s meteorological agency said.

Power outages affected more than 250,000 households in total in Kyushu, but the utility operator said only 6,500 remained without electricity on Friday as engineers repaired damaged transmission lines.

Overnight, many roads were partially or completely closed in several regions, Japanese media reported. High-speed train travel, the Shinkansen, was suspended in Kyushu and also on the main route between Tokyo and Osaka, and operators warned of disruptions elsewhere.

Flights cancelled, factories closed

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

Major carmaker Toyota has been forced to halt production at all 14 of its factories in Japan. Competitors Nissan and Honda have ceased operations at their Kyushu factories, as have electronic chipmakers including Tokyo Electron, according to media reports.

Kyushu is an important location for semiconductor production: Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC opened a factory there in February.

Shanshan hit Japan in the wake of Typhoon Ampil, which brought heavy rain in mid-August and disrupted hundreds of train journeys, but caused no major damage. According to a study published in July, typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast than before, intensifying more quickly and staying on land longer due to climate change.

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