Automative giant Toyota Motor Corp is suspending production at all its factories in Japan because of an approaching typhoon, the company said yesterday.
“From today’s number-two [afternoon] shift through tomorrow’s number-one [daytime] shift, we will suspend all the production lines at domestic factories,” a Toyota spokesman told reporters.
About 28 production lines at 14 group companies were to suspend operations from yesterday afternoon, the spokesman said.
Photo: Reuters
One line at truckmaker Hino Motors Ltd was to resume operations this morning, the spokesman added.
The decision came as “extremely strong” Typhoon Shanshan approached southern Japan, packing gusts of up to 252kph and bringing widespread heavy rain.
The storm is expected to spend the rest of the week traveling above or near Japan toward its northeastern region, with authorities advising tens of thousands of people to evacuate and issuing the highest warning level for wind and storm surges on the main southern island of Kyushu.
“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu with extremely strong force through Thursday and it may make landfall,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
“It is expected that violent winds, high waves and storm surge at levels that many people have never experienced before may occur,” Hayashi said.
For southern Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency predicted 1,100mm of precipitation in the 48 hours to tomorrow morning.
The agency also issued its highest “special warning” for violent storms, waves and high tides in parts of the Kagoshima region of Kyushu, with authorities there advising 56,000 people to evacuate.
A video on NHK TV showed roof tiles being blown off houses, broken windows and felled trees.
The warnings indicate that the “possibility that a major disaster prompted by [the typhoon] is extremely high,” the agency’s chief forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto told a news conference.
Japan Airlines Co canceled 172 domestic flights and six international flights scheduled for yesterday and today, while All Nippon Airways Co nixed 219 domestic flights and four international ones yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The cancelations affected about 25,000 people.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
RSS