Typhoon Shanshan on Friday dumped record rainfall as it slowly churned through Japan, causing transport chaos and widespread landslide warnings that killed up to six people.
The typhoon, one of the strongest to hit Japan in decades, weakened and was forecast to weaken to tropical cyclone strength by Monday, although gusts were still reaching 126 kilometers per hour early Friday.
Even before it made landfall on the island of Kyushu, a landslide triggered by heavy rains that preceded it killed three members of the same family late Tuesday in Aichi Prefecture, about 1,000 kilometers away.
Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed four deaths, but said one case was “being studied for a connection to the typhoon”. Two others are feared dead and two are missing, Hayashi said.
Eight people were seriously injured and 70 were slightly injured, he said, with many injured by broken glass after the typhoon smashed windows and ripped tiles from roofs when it hit Kyushu on Thursday with gusts of up to 252 km/h.
