Japan cancels flights, trains as Typhoon Lan expected to make landfall Tuesday

Japan Airlines have announced flight and train cancellations due to Tuesday’s expected landfall of Typhoon Lan along the Country’s Pacific coast.

A handful of bullet train services have also been canceled, with operators advising passengers that unexpected adjustments may occur on Wednesday.

The seventh typhoon of the Pacific season is expected to mainly affect the Center and West of the Archipelago.

Lan, the season’s seventh tropical storm, was over the Pacific Ocean near central Japan on Monday, moving northwest at 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 miles per hour), with a maximum wind speed of 139 kph and gusts of up to 195 kph, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Many flights in the storm’s route were canceled by Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings. West Japan Railway reported that the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train routes between Nagoya and Osaka, as well as the Sanyo Shinkansen between Osaka and Okayama, would be suspended all day on Tuesday.

The storm comes on the heels of Typhoon Khanun, which meandered in the northwest Pacific for days before lashing Southern Japan, then heading north to batter South Korea, China, and the Russian Far East.

Typhoon Lan threatens to disrupt one of Japan’s busiest travel seasons during the Obon summer holiday, when many people take vacations and return to their hometowns.

Japan Airlines said 19 flights, including to and from Itami airport in Western Japan, had been cancelled on Monday, with 240 flights on Tuesday also cancelled, affecting over 24,000 people.