TOKYO: A powerful typhoon sliced through Japan on Sunday, injuring dozens, halting transport, and bringing fierce winds and torrential rain to areas already battered by a string of recent extreme weather episodes.

Typhoon Trami sparked travel disruption in the world’s third-biggest economy, with bullet train services suspended, more than 1,000 flights cancelled and Tokyo’s evening train services scrapped.

At least 84 people suffered minor injuries, many hurt by windows shattered in the driving wind, and one woman in her 60s was reported missing amid fears she was swept into a gutter.

After pummeling Japan’s outlying islands including Okinawa, the storm made landfall south of the city of Osaka in the western part of the country around 8pm local time (1100 GMT).

Yuji Ueno, an official in the town of Shirahama near where Trami made landfall, told AFP the winds were “enormous” and made it impossible to venture outside.

Trami, which at its height packed maximum gusts of 216 kilometres per hour, was expected to churn over most of the archipelago, weakening slightly but causing extreme weather into Monday, forecasters said.

Weather officials have warned of potential flooding and landslides and non-compulsory evacuation advisories have been issued to around four million residents, according to public broadcaster NHK.

More than 750,000 households, mainly in western Japan have lost power, according to local utilities and mobile phone services suffered disruption.

As the typhoon barrelled east, rail authorities took the highly unusual step of cancelling evening train services in Tokyo, one of the world’s busiest networks, urging passengers to shelter indoors when the storm hits.

Trami is the latest in a string of extreme natural events in Japan, which has suffered typhoons, flooding, earthquakes and heatwaves in recent months, claiming scores of lives and causing extensive damage.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018