A typhoon expected to take an unusual route across Japan is forecast to make landfall on Honshu over the weekend, with the Meteorological Agency calling for people in western Japan to be extra vigilant for further landslides and flooding after the rain disaster earlier this month.
As of 6 p.m. Friday, Typhoon Jongdari, the season's 12th storm, was moving north over the Pacific Ocean at 30 kph and had an atmospheric pressure of 965 hectopascals. It was bringing heavy rain and winds to the remote Ogasawara Islands some 1,000 km south of Tokyo.
The storm is likely to gradually shift northwest and gain speed as it approaches Kanto on Saturday afternoon, before swerving west toward central and storm-hit western Japan through Sunday, said Ryuta Kurora, the agency's chief forecaster.