Typhoon Jebi, the 21st storm of the season, is packing winds of up to 252 kph (156 mph) and had a barometric pressure of 935 hectopascals as of 3 p.m. Sunday, according to the Meteorological Agency.

 

It is expected to hit Honshu on Tuesday, the agency said.

“Maintaining its very strong power, the typhoon is forecast to approach western and eastern Japan,” the agency said.

Jebi’s projected path appears to cover the Chugoku region, where record rainfall in July unleashed flooding and landslides that killed around 220 people, marking Japan’s worst weather-related disaster in decades. The region comprises Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi prefectures.

Local media said the typhoon, which is still hundreds of kilometers away in the Pacific, could be the strongest storm to hit the nation this year.

The Meteorological Agency urged residents in the western and eastern regions to prepare for high waves, landslides and floods. The storm comes as some 27,000 people in Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, were temporarily ordered to evacuate Saturday due to torrential rain.

Japan is regularly struck by major storm systems during the summer and autumn. Jebi would follow Typhoon Cimaron, which made landfall on Aug. 23 and disrupted transport but went easy on injuries and property damage.

More rain might be welcome in other parts of Japan, which has also been sweating through a deadly heat wave.

Jebi, the 21st typhoon of the season, was expected to make landfall on Shikoku or the Kii Peninsula around noon Tuesday, prompting the Meteorological Agency to warn of strong gusts, high waves and heavy downpours.

 

Categorized as “very strong” by the agency based on its gusts, Jebi will become the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years if it maintains its current strength, an agency official said at a news conference.

As of 9 p.m. Monday, Jebi was 270 kilometers south of Kagoshima Prefecture’s Tanegashima Island and moving north at 20 kilometers per hour. It had an atmospheric pressure of 945 hectopascals at its center and gusts of up to 216 kph, the agency said.

The typhoon is predicted to travel toward the Sea of Japan on Monday night and move along the coast northwards on Tuesday.

Domestic airlines have decided to cancel more than 600 flights on Tuesday, mainly those taking off and landing at airports in the Tokai and Shikoku regions.

West Japan Railway Co. (JR West), announced plans to suspend all train services from Kyoto to Kobe by 10 a.m. Tuesday. Shikoku Japan Railway Co. (JR Shikoku) is expected to halt all operations on the island from around 9 a.m.

Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, one of the nation’s most popular theme parks, and Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, another popular spot, were set to be closed all day on Tuesday.

The Meteorological Agency advised the public to be on the lookout for even more flooding and mudslides, as well as high tides.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a meeting of officials Monday morning that the government will do all it can to deal with the typhoon, given the rampant storms and flooding that have wreaked havoc across nation so far this year.

Jebi’s predicted course brings it close to parts of western Japan hit by the deadly rains and flooding that killed more than 200 people in July. However, it is set to speed up once it makes landfall, minimizing the amount of rain that would fall in one place.

Japan has been hit by extreme weather since the beginning of July that has included record-breaking heat as well as devastating floods and landslides.

Typhoon Cimaron sliced across western Japan less than two weeks ago, dumping heavy rain before heading out to sea.

After making landfall Tuesday, Jebi is expected to rumble over Honshu en route to the Sea of Japan, where it likely weaken into an extratropical cyclone, the agency said.

The agency said that strong gusts of up to 216 kph could hit the Shikoku and Kinki regions, while gusts of up to 162 kph could rough up wide sections of Japan including the Tohoku, Tokai and Hokuriku regions.

The Tokyo metropolitan area may see strong winds, though the typhoon is unlikely to pass close to the capital.

Up to 150 mm of rain may fall in some regions in western and central Japan through Tuesday morning, the agency said.

The airport, which sits on a man-made island in Osaka Bay, has been flooded and closed since the afternoon. It will not resume operations until at least Wednesday evening, according to airport officials.

 

The damage to one of the busiest airports in Japan — frequented by visitors to cities in the Kansai area such as Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe — could affect the country’s tourism boom.

The 2,591-ton Houn Maru, which had been anchored in the bay, was swept toward the approximately 3,700-meter-long bridge around 1 p.m., damaging the sole land connection to the airport.

Those stranded at the facility will likely be transported to the mainland using lanes not affected by the collision, the airport operator said. Train services along the bridge have also been suspended.

None of the ship’s 11 crew members were injured in the incident. The local coast guard dispatched a helicopter to rescue them.

The transport ministry said the airport closed all of its runways at noon and shut down the entire facility from 3 p.m. due to flooding.

The airport’s runway and the basement floor of a terminal building have been flooded, according to airport officials.

Kansai airport, in a statement to Osaka media outlets, said water depth was up to 50 centimeters in some places at the airport.

Terminal 1’s passenger area was not flooded and authorities also said Terminal 2 escaped damage, as well as the runway beside it, known as Runway B.

As of Tuesday afternoon, power was out in part of the Terminal 1 building, and airport authorities reported that one passenger had been injured.

Tuesday was the 24th anniversary of the opening of the international gateway that’s become the third-busiest airport in the country.

The airport has been increasingly used by foreign passengers, particularly those from China, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, as it has been expanded to accommodate budget airlines.

In fiscal 2017 through March, the number of total passengers hit a record-high 28.80 million, according to data released by the operator.

Dozens of salvage barges were also swept away at Kobe and Osaka ports after their ropes snapped due to the strong winds. While some people remain onboard, there has been no reports of injuries, according to the coast guard.

The Meteorological Agency warned of heavy rains, strong winds and mudslides across the western and northeastern regions of the country as the typhoon first made landfall in the southern part of Tokushima Prefecture around noon. The storm made landfall again around 2 p.m. near Kobe.

 

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jebi was traveling north-northeast over the Sea of Japan north of Niigata Prefecture at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour and with an atmospheric pressure of 975 hectopascals at its center.

 

In Higashiomi, Shiga Prefecture, one man was killed when a company storage facility collapsed amid strong winds. Powerful gusts in the prefecture also tipped over several trucks on the Meishin Expressway.

Another man died after falling from the second floor of his home in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

Near Kansai International Airport, strong winds swept away a tanker berthed in Osaka Bay, slamming it into the sole bridge that connects the airport to the mainland and taking a large chunk out of the bridge.

None of the 11 crew members were injured, the regional coast guard headquarters said. Heavy flooding prompted the Transport Ministry to close down the entire airport, which is built on reclaimed land.

According to the airport operators, 5,000 were stranded at the facility as of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. Flight operations may resume Wednesday evening at the earliest, the operator said.

All Nippon Airways canceled more than 320 domestic and international flights, and Japan Airlines more than 270 flights on Tuesday, affecting around 57,000 passengers in total.

 

Power was out at 1.61 million houses in Fukui, Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama Prefectures on Tuesday, in addition to 95,000 houses in the Shikoku region.

In Kyoto, some people were injured after the ceiling at Kyoto Station partially collapsed, according to local police.

Dramatic footage taken by a bystander also showed parts of the roof of the newly remodeled Hotel Hewitt Koshien — near Koshien Station in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture — blowing off and into an electricity poll amid strong winds from the typhoon. The hotel is adjacent to the iconic Koshien Stadium.

In the city of Osaka, Tatsuki Okada, a desk manager at the Hyatt Regency Osaka, said he was urging visitors to take precautions amid the storm.

“The winds are quite strong and we’re advising our customers and guests not to get too close to glass windows and walls,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, more than 330,000 homes in the Kinki and Shikoku regions suffered power outages.

Evacuation orders were earlier issued in some areas of Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Kagawa, Ehime and Wakayama prefectures. In Japan, evacuation orders are not mandatory and people often stay at home, only to be trapped by rapidly rising water or sudden landslides.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga had encouraged the public to “evacuate early” and said at a news conference Tuesday morning that the government will “take all possible means” to prepare for a possible crisis.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been traveling across the country in an attempt to secure support for his bid for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election later this month, canceled his trip to the Kyushu region to deal with the typhoon.

Abe had faced criticism over his initial response to heavy rain that pounded western Japan in July, given that he and some other ministers were found to have been drinking at a gathering of LDP lawmakers in Tokyo as the situation became increasingly grim.

Japan has been hit by a succession of typhoons and disasters related to heavy rain, including massive flooding and landslides that left more than 220 people dead in July.

 

The Meteorological Agency had projected that Typhoon Jebi would move northward along the Tohoku region’s Sea of Japan coast, weakening to an extratropical cyclone by Wednesday morning.

In Tokushima Prefecture, wind and rain strengthened after it made landfall. A 67-year-old man in the town of Itano hit his back after falling over while trying to cover the roof of his house with a sheet. Another man in his 60s fell two meters into a rice paddy in the city of Mima.

Bracing for Jebi, domestic airlines have played it safe, canceling hundreds of local and international flights mainly scheduled to depart and arrive in airports in western and central Japan.

Railway operators also halted some services, including on the Tokaido Shinkansen and Sanyo Shinkansen lines. Some expressway sections were also expected to be closed off.

Many bullet train passengers bound for the Kansai area were stranded on halted trains. Among them was Indonesian national Justin Setiawan, 25, and his family, who were on their way to Osaka aboard the Nozomi 29 train for a vacation.

“We have been stuck approximately 3.5 hours,” he said in an email sent to The Japan Times.

Setiawan said that despite the scenario, the passengers remained quite calm, but that all the food and bottled water onboard had already run out.

Setiawan also was sanguine about the events.

“Fortunately I booked everything in advance, and once we arrive our plan is just to take a walk around Osaka (Umeda Area) near our hotel,” he wrote. “So that is still in place, providing we reach there (the hotel) before late night — although I’ve heard everything in Osaka (stores and places to eat) are all closed.”

 

Hiroki Nakaya, a 21-year-old university student who was traveling to the Kansai region from Kanagawa Prefecture, said at Osaka Station that the storm had prompted him to consider changing his travel plans.

“I heard on the news that JR lines would stop. I was planning to go to Kyoto, but I’m not yet able to make up my mind,” he said.

Department stores and popular tourist attractions in western Japan, including Osaka and Kyoto prefectures, also fell victim to the typhoon, with many closing for the day.

USJ Co., the operator of Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, closed its park and few people were seen in the usually bustling surrounding areas.

The typhoon also affected factory operations, including Suntory Holdings Ltd.’s Yamazaki Distillery in Shimamoto, Osaka Prefecture.

In Kyoto, the Kyoto City Zoo, the Kyoto Aquarium, and Nijo Castle were closed.

“We’re not sure yet if we’ll be open on Wednesday. It depends on the typhoon. But for the safety of our visitors, we decided to close today,” Hiromi Kamiguchi, a spokeswoman for Nijo Castle, a UNESCO world heritage site, said Tuesday morning.

Also Tuesday, the Imperial Household Agency said it was not accepting visits to the Kyoto Imperial Palace and other Imperial facilities in the city due to bad weather.

In the 24-hour period through 6 a.m. on Wednesday, up to 500 mm of rain was projected to fall in central Japan and up to 400 mm in the country’s west.

Most businesses in central Osaka reopened and trains and subways were running normally. But with Kansai International Airport still out of operation, thousands of passengers had to rebook flights from other international airports.

 

A tanker crashed into the bridge connecting the airport to the mainland Tuesday, and high tides flooded the main runway and surrounding tarmac. There was no official word Wednesday on when flights would be able to resume, and concern is growing in the Kansai region over the economic losses that would be incurred by a prolonged closure of the airport.

About 5,000 people were stranded Tuesday night on the artificial island on which Kansai airport is built. They were evacuated Wednesday by bus and boat.

A Kyodo News tally as of Wednesday evening showed that 11 people had been killed due to the typhoon in western Japan and a combined 460 people had been injured nationwide. Kansai Electric Power Co. said about 349,000 homes and businesses in the Kansai region remained without power.

Rescue and recovery efforts were also underway elsewhere in the region. A group of about 160 elementary school pupils in Kyoto have been stranded since Tuesday in a facility in Kyoto where they were staying on a school trip. Trees knocked down by the strong typhoon blocked surrounding roads, local officials said Wednesday.

Of the pupils, two — a girl and a boy — have fallen ill and were taken to a hospital by helicopter on Wednesday morning, according to officials from the city of Kyoto’s board of education.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said that he was satisfied with the advance preparations the prefecture had made and the way it had handled the disaster response. Osaka Prefecture’s disaster response teams had already had to deal with heavy rains and an earthquake over the last three months before Tuesday’s typhoon.

But attention is now focused on the damage to Kansai airport, a crucial air link to the region.

“Kansai airport is the main international airport for all of western Japan and we want to make all effort at reopening it as soon as possible,” Matsui said. “But at this point, we’re still assessing the damage …. How long will it take? Passenger safety is first but we want to limit economic damage due to its closure.”

Osaka Prefecture has requested financial assistance and expertise from the central government, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised to provide it. In a series of tweets, Abe hailed the relief operations and said the government will “come together to make every effort to urgently deal with the disaster and restore infrastructure.”

The possibility of using Kobe and Itami airports more until operations are fully restored at Kansai airport is also something Osaka wants to discuss with the central government.

Although the governor did not say so directly, that could mean a temporary return of some international flights to Itami airport. Itami served as the Kansai region’s international airport until Kansai airport opened in 1994.”The function of Kansai airport is currently at zero,” Matsui said. “If it is gradually raised to 50 percent, then we need to make efforts at cooperating, during this time of emergency, with Kansai’s other two airports (Itami and Kobe) in order to limit the economic damage to the region as much as possible.”

“I want to discuss all possibilities,” he said, in reply to a question if he wanted both Kobe and Itami to take international flights.

Kansai is extremely worried about losing business to other international hubs.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways on Wednesday canceled flights departing from and arriving at Kansai airport. A JAL spokesman said the carrier is mulling arranging emergency international flights to and from Narita International Airport “as soon as possible,” but declined to specify a timeline.

Kansai International Airport sits on reclaimed land in Osaka Bay, and is the main international airport for the Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe areas. Itami, also known as Osaka International Airport, is located about 30 minutes north of Osaka station. Kobe also has a domestic-only airport.

In fiscal 2017, Kansai airport hosted a total of 28.8 million tourists — a record high. The airport is linked by air routes with about 100 cities in the world. In that same fiscal year the volume of cargo handled at the airport stood at about 852,000 tons, while the number of flight landings and takeoffs totaled some 188,000.