TYPHOON DUJUAN TRIGGERS MASS EVACUATIONS ACROSS JAPAN

Typhoon Dujuan has struck Japan's Pacific coast, triggering evacuation orders across Ibaraki, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures. Japan's internal affairs ministry said 1,674,084 people were ordered to evacuate, while other figures put the total at almost two million. The highest-level alert was issued for about 40,000 residents in Sodegaura, Chiba, and 3,020 residents of Oshima town and the Izu Islands. Strong winds cut power to more than 50,000 households, reports said, and led to hundreds of flight cancellations and suspended rail services. Japan's Meteorological Agency warned of an imminent threat to life from the storm.

Dujuan brought sustained winds of 130km/h and gusts up to 194km/h, with rain forecast to reach 350mm, the agency said. Yasuhiro Kaneko of the Yokosuka city fire department said a woman was believed to have been buried alive after a landslide crushed her house. A separate landslide in Sodegaura left a woman with minor injuries, one account said, while another described a man rescued after falling into a bamboo thicket while clearing debris. The chief forecaster, Takuya Hosomi, said the storm intensified after slowing over unusually warm waters near the Izu Islands.

Japan's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, delayed her trip to the United States to monitor the typhoon, having been due to meet US President Donald Trump. Dujuan struck during a five-day holiday and forced the cancellation of events including concerts at the Rock in Japan music festival and part of the Tokyo Game Show. Some reports linked the storm to other Pacific storms intensified by a super El Niño effect said to have warmed the ocean. Authorities have advised the public to keep monitoring weather information as some warnings remain in force.