At least eight people have died after record rainfall triggered severe flooding and landslides across eastern Japan, leaving thousands stranded at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.
Authorities in Chiba Prefecture described the downpour as unprecedented, with more than 100mm of rain recorded in an hour since Thursday afternoon.
The rainfall is about three times the region’s average August total and represents the highest volume of precipitation ever recorded in the country.
The extreme weather prompted authorities to issue their highest-level emergency warning on Thursday.
The alert was lowered to level four on Friday morning, although officials continued to caution residents about the risks of flooding and landslides.
More than 20,000 households in Chiba were left without electricity, while over 100,000 households were advised to evacuate after flooding and landslides disrupted communities.
Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai said the situation was unlike anything he had experienced during his years responding to disasters.
“This case was an extremely unusual situation, even by Japan’s historical weather standards,” 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 who died was a woman found inside a car submerged on a flooded road, while two other people collapsed in the streets and later died, according to authorities.
The Japan Meteorological Agency attributed the intense rainfall to warm, humid air moving into eastern Japan and interacting with colder air above, creating highly unstable atmospheric conditions.
The agency had earlier described the rainfall as an “unprecedented level of heavy rain”, with forecasters expecting the downpour to continue through Friday.
The severe weather also disrupted transportation, with several railway services suspended and major highways closed.
At Narita Airport, thousands of passengers were forced to spend the night after the storm disrupted travel to and from the facility.
About 1,800 people reportedly sought shelter overnight at the Chiba Prefectural Government building, while others were stranded at metro stations.
Despite the disruption, Narita Airport said flights were scheduled to operate normally on Friday.
Japan Airlines also said some services could face delays but that cancellations were not expected.
The latest downpour follows a series of storms affecting Japan and other parts of Asia this week, raising concerns about an unusually active typhoon season.
In the Philippines, schools and government offices in much of the northern region were again closed because of the threat of flooding.
Japan, the Philippines and China have experienced the effects of several storms in recent days, including Dolphin, Chan-Hom and Peilou.
Dolphin caused heavy rainfall in Japan’s Okinawa region, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of buildings, bringing down trees and disrupting flights.
In China, more than one million people were evacuated over the weekend as Dolphin, described as the strongest typhoon to hit the country so far this year, made landfall in the east.
