At least four people have died and five others wounded in eastern Japan as record rainfall pummelled Chiba prefecture, near the capital Tokyo, triggering landslides, power outages and stranding thousands of travellers overnight at Narita airport.
The deluge, described by authorities as “unprecedented” and an “extremely unusual situation,” cut power to more than 20,000 households while about 7,000 passengers were stranded at Narita International Airport, one of Japan’s busiest travel hubs.
Local authorities issued a level five emergency warning, the highest alert, on Thursday. This was downgraded to a level four by Friday morning, but officials continue to warn of landslide and flooding risks across the region.
Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai told reporters on Friday morning: “I have responded to many disasters in the past, but I have never experienced a case like this.”
Among those killed was a woman who died inside her submerged car on a flooded road. Two others collapsed along streets and later died. Details of the fourth victim were not immediately available.
Chiba, located just east of Tokyo, recorded more than 100 millimetres of rain per hour since Thursday afternoon. According to authorities, this is about three times the average rainfall for August and the highest volume of precipitation ever recorded in the country.
The Japan Meteorological Agency earlier described the situation as an “unprecedented level of heavy rain”, attributing the extreme weather to warm, humid air flowing into eastern Japan that combined with cold air above to create highly unstable atmospheric conditions.
The rains are expected to persist through late Friday.
Several rail services remain suspended while some major highways are also shut. More than 100,000 households have been asked to evacuate following landslides and power outages.
At Narita Airport, all flights are scheduled to operate normally on Friday, according to a spokesperson. Flag carrier Japan Airlines said some flights may be delayed but that it does not expect any cancellations. However, passengers stranded at metro stations and around 1,800 people spent the night at the Chiba Prefectural Government building.
A woman in Chiba’s Ichikawa city told local broadcaster NHK: “It happened all of a sudden so it was a complete surprise. The power is out so I’m worried whether I can open my business in the next couple of days.”
The extreme weather follows a series of storms that swept through Japan and neighbouring countries this week, in what forecasters have described as an unusually active typhoon season.
Earlier in the week, Japan, the Philippines and China were hit by back-to-back storms—Dolphin, Chan-Hom and Peilou—churning across the region simultaneously.
Dolphin brought heavy rain to Japan’s Okinawa island, cutting power to tens of thousands of buildings, toppling trees and cancelling flights. Over the weekend, Chinese authorities evacuated more than one million people from their homes as Dolphin, the strongest typhoon to hit China so far this year, made landfall in the country’s east.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, authorities have again shut schools and government offices in most of the country’s north, citing the threat of floods.
