Typhoon Shanshan Lashes Southern Japan as It Moves Inland

Typhoon Shanshan made landfall in Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost island, at about 8 a.m. on Thursday local time, the country’s meteorological agency said.

It had weakened as it approached the island, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. But it was still lashing parts of southern Japan with torrential rain, and the risk of life-threatening landslides and floods was rapidly increasing, the Japan Meteorological Agency warned.

The powerful storm had sustained winds of up to 97 miles per hour early Thursday, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It made landfall near Satsumasendai City, which has a population of about 100,000, in Kagoshima Prefecture.

About a million people were under evacuation orders and almost 40 people have been injured in the storm, according to the public broadcaster NHK. About 253,000 people are without power, service provider Kyushu Electric Power Transmission and Distribution said.

On Wednesday, the authorities issued rare emergency warnings for the storm in Kagoshima Prefecture. They are the highest category of warnings possible in Japan, are usually only issued once every few decades in a given region, and indicate the possibility of large-scale disaster, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Toyota announced that it would pause production at all 14 of its Japan factories starting Wednesday evening, to protect its workers.

Over Tuesday and Wednesday, the storm moved sluggishly past the Amami Islands, south of the mainland, before heading north toward Kyushu. Its slow pace means it has lashed some areas with rain for hours, and some parts of southern Kyushu have received nearly two feet of rain so far, the meteorological agency said.