Tropical storm set to drench Tokyo over long holiday weekend

TOKYO – A tropical storm in the Western Pacific Ocean is set to strengthen in the coming days and track toward Japan, threatening strong winds and heavy rain over the country’s “silver week” holidays.Tropical Storm Dujuan is currently 832km north-east of Guam, and is forecast to rapidly gain power as it passes over very warm waters, according to the US’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.The system will likely bring heavy rainfall to a part of eastern Japan, including Tokyo, that has already been drenched by two weeks of record precipitation, raising landslide and flood risks.Dujuan will be the 10th tropical cyclone to affect Japan since June, a busier-than-usual storm season for the country that has been fuelled by the El Nino weather pattern, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.It is forecast to come closest to Japan on Sept 21, right in the middle of a five-day holiday that runs through Sept 23. It is still unclear if the cyclone will make landfall.“In areas already affected by heavy rain, further rainfall could increase the risk of landslides and river flooding,” said Takahisa Nishikawa, senior decision support meteorologist at Atmospheric G2. “Even an offshore track would not eliminate these risks,” he said, adding that Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, could be particularly hard-hit.The unusually active storm season is already having an economic impact on the country. There was a 10 per cent year-on-year drop in foreign visitors to Japan in August as cyclones disrupted flights. Chiba, an industrial hub, is still recovering from record rains last month.JTWC and JMA forecasts both show Dujuan charting a path that keeps it offshore as it nears Tokyo early next week. A direct hit is possible though, with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts estimating a 40 per cent chance of landfall over the Kanto region, which includes Tokyo and Chiba.Rains are forecast to increase over Kanto from the weekend, and intensify as Dujuan gets closer, according to commercial forecaster Weathernews. The region has already seen the most precipitation on record for the first half of September, the JMA said. Bloomberg