A severe tropical storm, Storm Jangmi, has moved towards Tokyo, triggering flood warnings and evacuation advisories for hundreds of thousands of residents in Japan.
The storm, which was downgraded from a typhoon after making landfall, has left 15 people with minor injuries in southern Japan and caused widespread disruptions to transport and businesses.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the storm's centre was located off Japan's main island of Honshu and was moving northeast towards the greater Tokyo region.
The JMA warned that some areas along the Pacific coast faced an increasing risk of 'life-threatening disasters' due to the storm's maximum sustained winds of up to 25 metres per second.
Evacuation advisories were issued to hundreds of thousands of residents across eight prefectures in southwestern, central and eastern Japan, while the government said around 3,70,000 people from Shikoku island in western Japan to the Tokyo region had been urged to move to safer locations.
Torrential rain caused rivers to swell in western and eastern Japan, including areas around Tokyo, with the JMA issuing flood warnings for several regions, including densely populated Aichi prefecture and Tokyo.
Heavy rain paralysed road traffic in Tokyo, while television footage showed the swollen, muddy waters of the Zenpukuji River nearing overflow.
Transport services across the country were severely affected, with airlines cancelling nearly 900 domestic and international flights, and rail services disrupted.
