Factories hit by typhoon

Japan has been battered by a powerful typhoon, which brought ferocious winds and record rainfall to the country’s west on Monday.

At least two people have died in Typhoon Nanmadol, which has disrupted transport and forced manufacturers to suspend operations.

Toyota Motor Corporation suspended night shifts on 24 lines at 12 of its domestic plants on Monday. A spokesman adds the company plans to make up for the lost production with overtime and operations on holidays.

Japan’s 14th typhoon of the season made landfall near Kagoshima city late on Sunday before battering the western island of Kyushu and roaring onto the main island of Honshu the next morning.

A river in Kyushu’s Miyazaki prefecture overflowed, flooding fields and roads. State broadcaster NHK reports one man was found dead inside his car, which was submerged to the rooftop in a field, while another man died after being caught in a landslide. One other person remains missing and at least 115 people have been injured.

About 340,000 households, most of them in Kyushu, were without electricity early on Monday, while Kyushu Railway Co halted operations on Kyushu, while Japan Airline Co Ltd and ANA Holdings cancelled about 800 flights.

The storm made landfall again in Shimane prefecture in western Honshu after tracking the coastline earlier on Monday before heading east at about 35kph. Intermittent bouts of heavy rain have lashed Tokyo, but businesses in the capital have been mainly operating as normal.