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Typhoon Nari crossed Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido early on Tuesday, the first storm in almost a decade to scale this further north.
The typhoon brought intense winds, heavy rainfall, and warnings of landslides and flooding across Japan, including in Tokyo, before making landfall.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the storm made landfall near Cape Erimo on Hokkaido’s southern coast around 2am local time after travelling north along the country’s eastern coastline.
By 9am, the agency said, the system had moved into the Sea of Okhotsk and become extratropical.
Nari was the first typhoon to make landfall on the northern main island of Japan since 2016, according to the agency.
Although the typhoon was weakened now, officials warned that high winds, rough seas and heavy rainfall would continue to affect eastern and northern Japan through Tuesday.
In the 24-hour period to Tuesday evening, the Kanto-Koshin region was forecast to get up to 200mm of rain, Hokkaido up to 120mm and Tohoku around 80mm.
On Monday, extremely heavy rainfall of 52mm fell in the town of Ino in Kochi prefecture and 32mm in Tamana city in Kumamoto.
Wind gusts reached speeds of around 126kph in some coastal areas, prompting warnings for shipping and transport disruptions.
The storm had earlier passed east of the Tokyo metropolitan area, sparing the capital from direct landfall but causing rain and strong gusts that affected train schedules and ferry services.
Satellite imagery showed Nari tracking north rapidly on Monday morning, coming within 250km of Tokyo around midday.
No deaths or major injuries were reported as of Tuesday afternoon, but local governments in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku issued evacuation advisories and urged residents to take shelter.
Nari is the fifth named storm of the season. Japan typically sees more typhoons between August and September but warming seas linked to the climate crisis are contributing to earlier and potentially more intense storms.
According to data from the weather agency, the country saw a 30 per cent increase in rainfall during typhoons between 1980 and 2010 compared to previous decades.
More rain is expected in parts of northern Japan through Wednesday as remnants of the storm move northeastward over the Sea of Okhotsk.
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