One killed in Japan as typhoon approaches capital, millions advised to evacuate

One man was killed and more than 3 million people were advised to evacuate as a powerful typhoon bore down on the Japanese capital on Saturday, bringing with it the heaviest rain and winds in 60 years.

Typhoon Hagibis, which means “speed” in the Philippine language Tagalog, is due to make landfall on Japan’s main island of Honshu late on Saturday, threatening to flood low-lying Tokyo as it is coincides with high tide.

The storm, which the government warned could be the strongest to hit Tokyo since 1958, has already brought record-breaking rainfall in Kanagawa prefecture south of Tokyo with a whopping 700 mm (27.6 inches) of rain over 24 hours.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the highest level of warning for some areas in Tokyo, Kanagawa and five other surrounding prefectures, warning of amounts of rain that occur only once in decades.

“We are seeing unprecedented rain,” an agency official told a news conference carried by public broadcaster NHK. “Damage from floods and landslides is likely taking place already.”

Many people in and around Tokyo were already taking shelter in temporary evacuation facilities.

Yuka Ikemura, a 24-year-old nursery school teacher, was in one such facility at a community center in Edogawa in eastern Tokyo with her 3-year-old son, 8-month-old daughter and their pet rabbit.

She said she decided to move before it was too late.

“I’ve got small children to take care of and we live on the first floor of an old apartment,” Ikemura said.

“We brought with us the bare necessities. I’m scared to think about when we will have run out diapers and milk,” she told Reuters.