As a powerful typhoon threatened to make landfall in central or eastern Honshu over the weekend, railways and supermarkets announced plans to suspend or minimize operations for much of Saturday.

In a statement Friday, the Meteorological Agency said Typhoon Hagibis, the 19th named storm of the season, was projected to hit either the Tokai region or the Kanto region on Saturday evening or later and grind its way north through Tohoku.

The typhoon, considered the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale used in the United States, is forecast to bring fierce winds and downpours to a large swath of the mainland, the agency said.