Evacuations Ordered as Typhoon Shanshan Lashes Japan

Japanese authorities issued evacuation orders and rare emergency warnings for Typhoon Shanshan as the powerful storm churned toward the country’s southwest on Wednesday afternoon, bringing torrential rain and dangerous winds.

The emergency warnings were issued for storms and high waves in Kagoshima Prefecture. They are the highest category of warnings possible in Japan and are usually only issued once every few decades, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. They indicate that the typhoon could produce a large-scale disaster.

The storm was shifting north on Wednesday after passing the Amami Islands, an archipelago southwest of Japan’s mainland. On Thursday, it was expected to approach Kyushu, one of Japan’s main islands, according to the meteorological agency. It may make landfall in Kyushu, the agency said, but forecasters are uncertain about its exact path.

The authorities warned that wind speeds could strengthen and topple some homes, and that the rain could cause flash flooding and landslides.

In Aichi Prefecture in central Japan, rescuers were looking for three people after a landslide struck their home, the public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday morning. Another two residents were rescued.

Eight cities and towns, mostly on the Amami Islands, had ordered residents to evacuate, NHK reported. Almost 15,000 customers were without power in the Kagoshima Prefecture on Wednesday, the Kyushu Electric Power Transmission and Distribution company said.

Japan Airlines said that it had canceled some Wednesday flights that had been scheduled to arrive or depart from some airports in central Japan, including Osaka Kansai Airport, one of the country’s largest. All Nippon Airlines, the country’s largest airline, said that the storm was expected to affect some flights at Osaka airport.

Japan’s high-speed rail network, the Shinkansen, began to cancel some services starting on Tuesday. The number of cancellations was expected to grow on Wednesday and Thursday, its operators warned.

In some cities in central and eastern Japan, up to 10 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour window between Tuesday and Wednesday. Some cities in Japan were buffeted by winds of up to 86 miles per hour, equivalent to those of a Category 1 hurricane.

The typhoon slowed overnight as it approached the Amami Islands. Its sluggish motion will significantly increase how much rain it dumps over parts of Japan and lengthen the amount of time that damaging winds will lash the coast, the country’s meteorological agency said.

Japan last issued emergency warnings for Typhoon Nanmadol, a 2022 storm that brought torrential rain and the risk of destructive landslides to Kyushu. More than eight million people were ordered to evacuate.

The start of the Pacific typhoon season this year has seen a lower number of tropical storms than average, in part because of the La Niña weather pattern that is predicted to arrive later this summer, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

La Niña, which is defined by cooler equatorial sea surface temperatures, typically increases wind shear — changes in wind speed and direction — in the central Pacific region, which makes it harder for storms to develop, the Weather Service said in May.

Judson Jones contributed reporting.