Typhoons in Japan

Japan is one of the countries frequently hit by typhoons, with the nation giving its own names to particularly destructive storms.

Since records began in 1951, an average of 2.6 typhoons reached the main islands of Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido per year. Okinawa is, due to its geographic location, most vulnerable to typhoons with an average of 7 storms per year. The most destructive was Typhoon Vera (known in Japan as the Isewan Typhoon), with 5,000 casualties in the Tokai region in September 1959. The costliest to affect Japan (and the second costliest in the Western Pacific basin) was Typhoon Hagibis (also known as the Reiwa 1 East Japan Typhoon), which caused $17.3 billion (2019 USD) in damages throughout the country.^[1] Until the 1960s, the death toll was often hundreds of people per typhoon. Since then, improvements in construction, flood prevention, high tide detection and early warnings have substantially reduced the death toll, which now rarely exceeds a dozen people per typhoon. Japan also has special search and rescue units to save people in distress.^[2]