06:38 09Oct2004 UPDATE 1-Typhoon Ma-on nears Japan, may strike Tokyo


TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A powerful typhoon, one of the strongest storms
recorded in Asia this year, neared Japan on Saturday, lashing the nation
with heavy rain, prompting evacuations and threatening to strike Tokyo.
Typhoon Ma-on, which is expected to make landfall this evening, would be
a record ninth typhoon to hit Japan this year and comes just a week after
storm Meari killed 27 people.
"There is a very high chance that this storm will make landfall
somewhere in central or even eastern Japan," an official at the Japanese
Meteorological Agency said.
"We also have to consider the possibility that it may directly hit
Tokyo."
Authorities on Shikoku island, which was severely battered by Meari's
torrential rains, urged more than 3,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Several hundred people in other parts of Japan sought refuge in schools and
public halls.
A missing newspaper delivery man on his rounds in Chiba, just east of
Tokyo, was believed to have been swept into a river, police said.
The storm also forced the postponement of qualifying for Sunday's
Japanese Grand Prix motor racing event to the morning of the competition, an
unprecedented move taken after extreme conditions caused havoc during free
practice on Friday at Suzuka, around 300 km west of Tokyo.
Meteorological officials said the storm, which triggered several
landslides in central Japan but no reports of injuries or major damage,
could be the most powerful to hit eastern Japan in a decade.
Previously classified as a maximum category 5 typhoon, Ma-on, which
means "horse saddle," had weakened slightly as it neared Japan, but was
still packing winds at its centre of up to 162 km (100 miles) an hour, and
forecasters warned of powerful gusts.
At noon (0300 GMT), the storm was around 130 km (80 miles) south of Cape
Shiono, around 450 km west of Tokyo, and heading north northeast at 60 km an
hour -- "about the speed of a car," the Meteorological Agency official said.
Around 300 mm (12 inches) of rain had fallen in some parts of Chiba
prefecture in the 24 hours to Saturday morning. Some 300 mm of rain was
expected to fall in parts of eastern and northern Japan by Sunday morning.
Since the approach of the storm was likely to coincide with high tide,
forecasters also warned of possible tidal surges.
The storm forced the cancellation of some 51 domestic flights and 44
international flights, Kyodo news agency said. Ferry service was also
suspended in some areas.
Storms and floods have killed at least 72 people in Japan this year and
caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
Experts say Japan has suffered from an unusual number of storms due to
warmer offshore waters and weaker than normal Pacific high pressure areas.