AI Insight
Typhoon Dujuan brought record-breaking rainfall to Japan's Kanto region, triggering at least six fatal landslides across multiple prefectures. The typhoon deposited exceptional amounts of precipitation, with Oshima recording 832 mm in 48 hours and widespread areas receiving over 400 mm in the same period. Fatal landslides were reported in Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures, with additional people missing, representing an unusually high cluster of deadly events for Japan despite its advanced landslide management systems.
Why it matters
This event demonstrates that even countries with sophisticated landslide risk management can experience multiple fatal incidents when extreme rainfall events occur. The clustering of six or more fatal landslides highlights the challenges posed by typhoon-related precipitation and the need for continued vigilance in hazard-prone areas during extreme weather events.
Understand the Science
In Japan, record breaking rainfall associated with Typhoon Dujuan has triggered at least six fatal landslides in the Kanto region.
Over the last 24 hours or so, rainfall associated Typhoon Dujuan has swept across the Kanto Region in Japan, bringing exceptional (and in some cases record breaking) rainfall. There are multiple reports of landslides, some of which have been fatal.
The rainfall associated with typhoons can be hard to visualise. In Oshima, on the Izu islands, 832 mm were recorded in 48 hours – that is more than the entire annual rainfall of the city (Nottingham) in which I work. Totals exceeding 400 mm in 48 hours have been recorded widely across parts of Kanto.
The Japan Times has a report that describes a series of fatal landslide events. These include:
- Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture: one fatality
- Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture: two people missing
- Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture: one person missing
- Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture: one person missing
- Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture: “a 51-year-old worker died after he and the heavy machinery he was operating fell into a bamboo grove while he was removing mud and debris from a road…A landslide had occurred around the site.”
- Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture: one fatality
- Sanmu, Chiba Prefecture: one fatality
A cluster of six or more fatal landslides is quite unusual for Japan, which works extremely hard to manage landslide risk.
James Reynolds has been recording Typhoon Dujuan – he has tweeted this image of a landslide on Highway 34 near Kyonan Hota IC:-
Typhoon Dujuan is now moving away from Japan, so more information will emerge over the next 24 hours about the impact of the storm. I expect that we will see a large number of landslides in those upland areas most affected by the intense rainfall.
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Source: Multiple fatal landslides from Typhoon Dujuan in Japan