Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Typhoon Hagibis Slams Japan, Killing Dozens

One of Japan’s worst typhoons in decades brought record-breaking rainfall to broad swaths of the country, killing more than 30 people and causing breaches in river levees that submerged low-lying areas.

Japan has sent tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history.

Typhoon Hagibis - which means "speed" in the Philippine language, Tagalog - was the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan in six decades.

It paralysed the capital, Tokyo, and surrounding areas, causing rivers to overflow and leaving almost half a million homes without power, public broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday.

Japan's Kyodo News agency said 33 people died and 19 were missing.

Rescue efforts were in full force, with troops, boats and helicopters deployed to the flooded areas, as rescue crew dug through dirt in other areas to try to get people out from homes buried by landslides.

Hagibis made landfall on the main Japanese island of Honshu around 7pm (10:00 GMT) on Saturday, with wind gusts of up to 216 kilometres per hour (134 miles per hour). A magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook Tokyo shortly after.

By Sunday morning, the significantly weakened storm had moved back off land and was expected to head out to sea in the evening after churning its way along the northern island of Hokkaido.

But serious flooding was reported in central Japan's Nagano, where a burst levee sent water from the Chikuma River gushing into residential neighbourhoods, flooding homes up to the second floor on Sunday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an emergency meeting of relevant ministers and dispatched the minister in charge of disaster management to the worst-hit areas.

He offered condolences to the families of those who died and said the government was working to save people's lives and property.

"The government will do everything in its power to cooperate with relevant agencies to restore services as soon as possible," said Abe.

Some 27,000 members of Japan's self-defence forces as well as firefighters, police and coast guard members were sent to rescue stranded people in central Japan's Nagano prefecture and elsewhere, the government said.

Thirteen people were also missing on Sunday, NHK said, adding that the full extent of the damage was only beginning to emerge because many areas remained under water.

Around 425,000 homes were without power, the government said, reviving fears of a repeat of the weeks-long power outages suffered after another typhoon hit east of Tokyo last month.

'Ongoing danger'


The typhoon caused a total of 48 landslides in 12 prefectures, the government said.

The Japan Meteorological Agency had issued the highest alert level for 12 prefectures, but lifted them early on Sunday.

The storm, which the government said could be the strongest to hit Tokyo since 1958, brought record-breaking rainfall to many areas, including the popular resort town of Hakone, which was hit with 939.5 mm (37 inches) of rain over 24 hours.

Authorities issued evacuation advisories and orders for more than 6 million people across Japan. Close to 150 injuries have been reported so far, NHK said.

In Tokyo, about 80,000 residents spent the night at emergency shelters amid fears of massive flooding.

Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from Tokyo, said: "There are still alerts in place for some coastal areas because the rivers are swollen, they have burst their banks in some places and also the reservoirs are very full.

"So the authorities have given the green light for some of those dams to release water, meaning there is an ongoing danger for some communities living downstream from those dams."

About 800 flights for Sunday were cancelled following the cancellation of more than 1,600 flights on the previous day, while many train services in the Tokyo region remained suspended.

As of noon (03:00 GMT), the typhoon weakened to an extratropical cyclone over the Pacific.

Rugby World Cup organisers cancelled a match between Namibia and Canada in the northern Japanese city of Kamaishi on Sunday, due to Hagibis, while three other games will go ahead as scheduled, officials said.

The game at Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium is the third match to be called off due to the storm.

Formula One Grand Prix organisers had also cancelled all practice and qualifying sessions scheduled for Saturday.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×