Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A powerful typhoon is approaching Japan, threatening industry and population centres with torrential rains and winds of up to 150 kilometres per hour. The Met Office has described the Japanese typhoon Melora arriving as the most powerful tropical storm of the last 10 years.
While the typhoon is moving north-east, the small islands in the south of the archipelago are being beaten by heavy waves, several meters high. Forecasts say that in the next 24 hours there will be at least 40 cm of rain, strong winds, waves and flooding. It is likely that the affected area will be Tokai, which includes the city of Nagoya, a major industrial centre.
Melora the first classified as a Category 5 super-typhoon has now become a category 1, with winds that can reach 153 kph.
The media compare this to the typhoon that hit in 2004, at the same time of year that killed 95 people and halted industrial activity for some time.
In recent weeks super-typhoons have hit east and south-east Asia, leaving a path of destruction in the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
A study done by Japanese meteorologists predicts that, because of the warming of the earth and the Pacific Ocean, there will be increasingly strong super-typhoons. According to these studies, in the second half of the century the coasts of the Japanese archipelago will be affected by "super-typhoons" that will produce unprecedented damage, with winds over 240 miles per hour.