Japan had on Wednesday, issued an emergency warning as the powerful Typhoon Shanshan approached the southwestern region with heavy downpour and strong winds. This development had prompted Toyota Motor to half operations at all of its domestic factories.
Airlines and rail operators had also followed suit, cancelling some services over the coming days as the typhoon, (which has now been categorised as “very strong”,) packed winds of 50 metres per second with gusts of up to 70 metres per second (252 km per hour/157 mph).
Typhoon Shanshan is expected to reach Japan’s southwestern Kyushu island over the next few days and approach the central and eastern regions, which includes the capital Tokyo, around the weekend, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
Authorities have issued evacuation orders for over 800,000 residents in Kagoshima prefecture in Kyushu and the central Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures.
Meanwhile representatives from Toyota have said that they will suspend operations of all 14 plants in Japan from Wednesday evening through Thursday morning.
Typhoon Shanshan is the latest extreme weather to hit Japan after last week’s Typhoon Ampil which led to blackouts and mass evacuations.
Japan Airlines have announced that it would cancel 170 domestic flights through Thursday. In addition, a total of 10 international flights operated by both airlines will also be suspended.
