Value Village ／ Before you come to Japan
This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete.
Typhoons reach Japan mostly from July to October, peaking in September, and each year some visitors are stranded by cancelled trains and flights. The storms themselves are well forecast; the misunderstanding is about how transport reacts.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Typhoons per year (NW Pacific) | about 25; about 3 make landfall in Japan on average; about 11 approach |
| Peak | August–September (September has the most landfalls) |
| Most affected | Okinawa, Kyushu, the Pacific coast; Hokkaido least |
| Duration at one place | Roughly 6–24 hours of strong wind and heavy rain |
| Transport | Planned suspensions announced 1–2 days ahead (JR West since 2014, JR East since 2018; MLIT guidance from 2019); Shinkansen stops when wind exceeds set limits; domestic flights cancelled in the hundreds; expressways closed |
| Warnings | JMA advisory (注意報) → warning (警報) → emergency warning (特別警報); "evacuation" levels 1–5 issued by municipalities |
[Verify] Landfall statistics with the JMA's typhoon database; planned-suspension practice with JR East/West announcements.
Transport stops before the storm and restarts after inspection; the wind itself makes walking dangerous (flying signage, umbrellas are useless). Plan to stay put, with food bought the day before (convenience stores empty out of bread and onigiri).
Planned suspensions start hours before landfall, sometimes from the previous evening. Check the operator's site the day before; move to your next city early or stay an extra night.
Domestic flights are cancelled en masse and international ones delayed. Airlines rebook free, but the next day is oversubscribed. Give yourself a buffer day before an international departure in September.
Modern hotels are safe places to wait out a typhoon; stay away from windows on the windward side, and expect the restaurant to close. Ryokan in mountain or coastal areas may evacuate — follow staff.
Rivers peak hours after the rain; landslide and flood warnings continue. Trains restart after track inspection, often the next morning. Check JMA and the operator, not the sky.
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https://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/typhoon.html
https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/
https://www.bousai.go.jp/oukyu/hinankankoku/
⚠️ Editorial note: the source URLs above were identified by search. Our working environment cannot reach go.jp domains, so the contents have not been checked against the text. Verify every source before publication and record who checked it and when.
What we share here are ideas and everyday practices passed down among people living in Japan, together with general information drawn from public sources. They are not official recommendations, and they are not professional instruction. Practices vary between households and regions.
This is general information. Results vary from person to person and depend on your own conditions and surroundings.
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