Evacuation warning on Japanese coast after typhoon

Millions of people in Japan were under evacuation warnings as Typhoon Nanmadol brought strong winds and heavy rain to the southwest of the country after making landfall overnight.

The powerful system has weakened since arriving on land yesterday evening around Kagoshima city in the southwestern region of Kyushu, but it has still uprooted trees, smashed windows and left rivers close to overflowing.

National broadcaster NHK said one person had been killed and 50 others injured as the storm passed through Kyushu. There was no immediate confirmation of the figures from authorities.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who had been scheduled to leave today for the United Nations General Assembly, will delay his trip by a day to check on damage from the storm, his office confirmed.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a warning that river levels in Miyazaki prefecture were high because certain locations there received more rain in a single day than they typically do in the entire month of September.

According to Yoshiyuki Toyoguchi from the land ministry, "even a minor amount more extra rainfall could cause the water level to increase, so please remain attentive regarding flooding and landslides."

However, despite the storm's strength, which included gusts of up to 234 km/h (145 mph), damage thus far has been very minor.

An official in charge of crisis management in Miyazaki's Saito city said, "The typhoon has virtually vanished today and the rain and wind are also lessening presently."

While declining to be identified, he stated, "But power is down in some spots... we're also hearing from numerous neighbours that electrical cables have been damaged and trees have been felled."

He continued, saying that officials "think there are still many aspects of the damage we're yet to grasp" and that "Flooding is hitting several places as well."

Rare "special warnings," which are only issued when meteorological events seen every few decades are predicted, have been decreased for Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures.

On the final day of a vacation weekend in Japan, however, 9.6 million people were still under varying levels of evacuation alerts.

Authorities have occasionally found it difficult to persuade citizens to leave their houses during extreme weather occurrences because the warnings are not legally required.

According to utilities, approximately 313,000 homes in Kyushu and the neighbouring Chugoku area were without electricity as of Wednesday morning. According to NHK, hundreds of flights had been cancelled, and numerous train services in the impacted areas had also been suspended.

In accordance with the JMA, the typhoon had maximum wind gusts of about 162 km/h as of 11 a.m. local time and was spiralling northeasterly close to Kitakyushu, the northernmost city on Kyushu island.

As per Ryuta Kurora, the chief of the JMA's forecast unit, "the heavy cloud and eye area around the typhoon's centre have already dissipated and it is decreasing swiftly."

The typhoon has been downgraded from a category strong and large typhoon to a major typhoon, he added, adding that it is continuing weakening.

Around 20 typhoons hit Japan annually, and the country is presently in typhoon season. These storms frequently bring severe rainfall that result in landslides or flash floods.

As Japan hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2019, Typhoon Hagibis struck the country, killing more than 100 people.

Typhoon Jebi, which closed Kansai Airport in Osaka a year earlier, also claimed 14 lives.

More than 200 people were killed by floods and landslides in western Japan during the nation's yearly rainy season in 2018, making it an especially disastrous year.

Scientists say climate change is increasing the severity of storms and causing extreme weather such as heat waves, droughts and flash floods to become more frequent and intense.