Trami pounds Japan

A powerful typhoon lashed Japan’s mainland yesterday after injuring dozens on outlying islands, bringing transport grinding to a halt and triggering warnings of fierce winds, torrential rain, landslides and floods.

Typhoon Trami has already snarled travel in the world’s third-biggest economy, with bullet train services suspended, more than 1,000 flights cancelled and Tokyo’s evening train services scrapped. The storm made landfall at Tanabe city, south of the western city of Osaka, around 8pm (1100 GMT), according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency.

Trami, with maximum gusts of 216 kilometres (134 miles) per hour, was expected to pass over most of the archipelago, weakening slightly but causing extreme weather into Monday, forecasters said. In total, 75 people have sustained minor injuries - mainly cuts from shattered glass - and one woman was reported missing in the Miyazaki region, which was drenched by record rainfall and suffered localised flooding.

According to local media, the woman in her 60s was swept away by gusts in a gutter while working with her husband in their ricefield. Nationwide, authorities have issued non-compulsory evacuation advisories to 1.5 million residents, according to public broadcaster NHK, and officials urged people across the country to stay indoors. Nearly 500,000 households in the western region of Kyushu and Okinawa have lost power, local utilities said.