Japan braces for double storms

Japan grappled with transport disruptions on Friday while bracing for more torrential rain and risks from two ‌approaching tropical storms that spurred authorities to issue high-level landslide warnings and order the evacuation of 1 million people.

More than 200 flights were cancelled and dozens of train services suspended while many expressways were closed, the land ministry said, while carmaker Toyota briefly halted operations at a factory in the southern region of Kyushu.

Weather ​officials said a lingering seasonal rain front combined with warm, moist air from tropical storms Mekkhala and Higos brought downpours to ​wide swathes of Japan's west, threatening landslides, floods and swollen rivers.

About 1 million people faced evacuation orders after ⁠some were lifted in Okinawa and other southern areas, emergency management authorities said.

Mekkhala, downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm, was ​passing over the southern Ryukyu Islands on Friday after skirting Taiwan, where severe rains shut down parts of the island to keep about 6 ​million people from work or school.

"Last night the rain wasn't too bad. But this morning the rain didn't stop," said Chi, a dessert shop owner in northern Taiwan's Zhubei city. "The road outside was flooded up to the knees, and inside our shop it was a little below knee level."

By Saturday, Mekkhala was expected to ​accelerate and approach western and eastern Japan, around the same time that Higos was forecast to draw close to the country's east, and ​possibly make landfall, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The combined impact of the storms and the rain front could boost rainfall across much of the country, it ‌added.

Toyota ⁠said work would resume from Friday's second shift at its Kyushu factory, shut from Thursday afternoon.

-Reuters