Nearly 1 million without power after Typhoon Faxai hits Japan
Tokyo: One person has been killed and more than 900,000 people are without power after Typhoon Faxai hit the wider Tokyo area with devastating winds and torrential rains.
The typhoon comes one day after a separate storm - Typhoon Lingling - buffeted the Korean peninsula, leaving casualties.
Faxai hit the city early on Monday, also disrupting transport, after making landfall near the city of Chiba shortly before 5am, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The storm was travelling north-east at 25km/h with maximum sustained winds of 144km/h and gusts of 216km/h, the agency said.
It warned of "ferocious winds and severe rainstorm," mudslides, flooding and high waves in the Tokyo area and north-eastern Japan.
More than 900,000 households lost electricity in the greater Tokyo area and Shizuoka prefecture, Tokyo Electric Power said.
East Japan Railway said all train services in the greater Tokyo area were suspended until around 8am.
More than 100 flights scheduled for Monday had been cancelled in advance following the cancellation of 135 flights on Sunday, the broadcaster NHK reported.
Rainfall of up to 150 millimetres was forecast for north-eastern Japan and up to 100 millimetres for the greater Tokyo area and the Koshin region by Tuesday morning, according to the agency.
A day earlier, a separate typhoon left five people dead and three injured in North Korea, state media reported in the first public announcement of casualties since the storm made landfall in the country.
Before reaching North Korea, Typhoon Lingling hit South Korea, killing three people and injuring 13 others, though the country appears to have escaped widespread damage.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said the typhoon left 460 houses and 15 public buildings destroyed, damaged or inundated in the country.
It said 46,200 hectares of farmland were buried or inundated.
KCNA said the typhoon hit North Korea from Saturday afternoon to midnight. Recovery work was underway in typhoon-afflicted areas, it said.
Outside observers said rainstorms could be a catastrophe in North Korea because of poor drainage, deforestation and decrepit infrastructure in the impoverished country.
South Korean media said North Korea could eventually report more typhoon-related casualties and damage.
According to a previous KCNA dispatch, leader Kim Jong-un "urgently convened" an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss disaster prevention efforts and scolded government officials who he described as "helpless against the typhoon, unaware of its seriousness and seized with easygoing sentiment."
South Korean weather officials said the typhoon had weakened when it moved through North Korea. They said the storm was moving near Russia's Vladivostok as of Sunday morning.
South Korea's interior ministry said earlier Sunday that it was reviewing the damage from the typhoon and engaging in recovery work.
The storm damaged buildings and knocked out power to about 161,640 homes in South Korea.
Typhoons that made a landfall in South Korea in past years caused greater damage and more casualties.
DPA, AP