AT least two people were killed and more than 10 were injured in a Japanese typhoon as Shinzo Abe won a sweeping election victory.
Millions battled severe wind and rain to get to the polls.
Tens of thousands of people were called to evacuate and hundreds of flights were cancelled.
A man was killed under scaffolding that collapsed in high winds and a fisherman was killed in his boat, according to Kyodo news agency.
More than 10 people were injured and this figure is expected to rise today.
Typhoon Lan, classified as an intense Category 4 storm by the Tropical Storm Risk monitoring site, was south of Japan and moving northeast at 50 kph last night, speeding up slightly, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the US Navy called it a super typhoon.
Lan seemed to have weakened slightly from its peak, but it was still a powerful storm that could destroy areas of the country with more than 80 mm (3 inches) of rain an hour, said an agency official.
It is predicted to make landfall on Japan’s main island of Honshu today as it weakens to a Category 2 storm.
The storm’s centreline forecast shows it is set to travel directly over Tokyo, an area which is home to around 30 per cent of Japan’s population.
It will also hit a US military base at Yokosuka before leaving Japanese shores this afternoon.
“The wind and rain will grow stronger as the night goes on, so take measures as needed as early as possible, preferably before it gets dark,” the official said.
Despite the typhoon likely to be downgraded, JMA gave heavy rain and flood warnings on the Pacific area of Japan, including the Tokyo metropolitan area. More than 70,000 households in several areas in Japan were advised to evacuate, with more than 5000 ordered to do so, according to NHK public television.
“I live alone and at night it’s scary, so I came here as early as I could,” an elderly woman told NHK at a evacuation center in western Japan.
More than 300 flights were cancelled and rail services were interrupted across the country yesterday, in one case due to a power outage.
Wind up to 180kph (111mph) is expected across the central and eastern parts of the country this morning, said the JMA.
This could affect the morning rush hour even after the rain is expected to have largely dissipated. The country experienced several small landslides yesterday and rivers were rising close to the top of their banks.
One part received more than 600 mm (23 inches) of rain in 48 hours. This is twice the usual amount of rain for the whole month of October.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “In order to protect people’s lives, the Abe cabinet will unite and do its best to provide an emergency response to a disaster.”
Toyota Motor Corp said it was cancelling the first shift at all of its assembly plants and that it would decide on a later shift this afternoon.
Despite the bad weather, early indications showed voter turnout was high.
Shinzo Abe is set to push for a revision of Japan’s constitution in his historic third term as the country’s prime minister.
By late last night in Tokyo, the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic party and Komeito had won 264 seats, well ahead of the 233 needed for a simple majority.
Projections put them close to the two-thirds supermajority — 310 seats — that was needed to revise the constitution.
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