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