Tokyo gears up for typhoon

SHIZUOKA: A powerful typhoon is on course to strike Tokyo and other areas of eastern Japan this weekend, the weather agency warned yesterday, as train operators and airlines announced plans to suspend many services in the metropolitan area.

Typhoon Hagibis, which it is feared could dump torrential rain on a level not seen since a deadly typhoon in 1958, is expected to make landfall this evening, before passing east of Hokkaido in northern Japan tomorrow afternoon, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

There will be no shinkansen bullet trains between Tokyo and Nagoya today, only six early-morning services will run between Nagoya and Shin-Osaka, and operations between Shin-Osaka and Okayama will be cancelled from the afternoon.

East Japan Railway Co said it will gradually suspend trains in the Tokyo metropolitan area today, starting some time between 9am and 1pm.

All Nippon Airways said it will cancel all domestic flights and most international flights to and from Haneda and Narita airports today, with some exceptions in the early morning and late at night. Japan Airlines has also decided to cancel most of its flights today, apart from those in the early hours.

With winds forecast to reach 216 kilometres per hour, the government warned houses were at risk of collapsing in the Tokai area in central Japan, and the Kanto-Koshin region, including the Tokyo metropolitan area, today.