Typhoon Shanshan Lashes Japan With Torrential Rain

Typhoon Shanshan was bringing torrential rainfall and dangerous winds to Japan as it churned toward the country’s southwest on Wednesday afternoon. The authorities warned that wind speeds could strengthen and topple some homes.

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 had been rescued.

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 from 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 within 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, an archipelago southwest of Japan’s mainland. 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.

The storm was shifting north on Wednesday and on Thursday was expected to approach Kyushu, one of Japan’s main islands, the agency said. It may make landfall in Kyushu, the agency said, but forecasters are uncertain about its exact path.