A powerful typhoon made landfall Tuesday for the first time this year in southern Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, with evacuation orders issued for more than 150,000 people in central, eastern and northeastern Japan.
The typhoon made landfall just after 5 p.m. in southern Wakayama, moved offshore and then made landfall again in eastern Aichi Prefecture. It is expected to head northeast across eastern and northern Japan, the agency said, warning of heavy rain and strong winds across a wide area through Wednesday.
The typhoon brought torrential rainfall of over 100 millimeters per hour to central Japan and around Tokyo.
A total of 49,594 households comprising 123,085 people in Toyohashi, Aichi, were requested to evacuate as the water levels of the city's Umeda, Sana and Yagyu rivers rose.
This Monday, members of the seminal metal band X Japan were in Odaiba rubbing shoulders with the likes of Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and AKB48′s Yuko Oshima. The catch? They were all made out of wax. (Japan Times )
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has announced that it intends to draw up a set of unified rules for the use of baby strollers on buses and trains. (Japan Today )
Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday announced the arrest of a broker of Thai females for violating immigration laws by employing the women as masseuses. (Tokyo Reporter )
The parents of a nightclub worker killed in an arson fire three years ago filed a suit in the Nagoya District Court on Monday seeking damages against top members of the Yamaguchi-gumi organized crime group. (Tokyo Reporter )
Kyodo News said Monday that it has dismissed Satoshi Kondo, 51, deputy chief of its general administration bureau and former personnel affairs division chief, for meeting individually with a female student searching for a job and doing an inappropriate act.
(Jiji Press )
Saitama and Okayama prefectural police last week arrested the manager of an online porn DVD operation that specialized in films featuring children. (Tokyo Reporter)
A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today )