Tropical Storm Mawar Prompts Widespread Evacuation Orders in Japan

More than 1.2 million people in Japan were ordered to evacuate on Friday as Tropical Storm Mawar, which has menaced parts of the Pacific for over a week, brought heavy rain and the threat of landslides and flooding to the country.

Japanese officials ordered the bulk of the evacuations in Hamamatsu City, more than 150 miles southwest of Tokyo, as the storm swirled more than 100 miles offshore. Older residents were also evacuated in at least two prefectures, and the authorities warned against landslides and flooding in the Tokyo area. Thousands of homes were also without power.

The conditions also prompted a tornado warning for the Tokyo area, as forecasters warned of lightning, hail and sudden, heavy rain.

At least nine people were hospitalized with storm-related injuries in the southern prefecture of Okinawa, the Ryukyu Broadcasting Group reported on Friday. Hundreds of flights at the country’s airports were either canceled or delayed as of Friday evening, according to FlightAware, a tracking website.

Mawar was hovering east of Okinawa on Friday with maximum sustained winds of about 51 miles per hour, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. In the United States, tropical storms with sustained winds of 74 m.p.h. qualify as Category 1 hurricanes.

The heavy rain also affected the coastal prefecture of Kochi, southwest of Osaka. Strong winds were blowing farther south in Okinawa. Other parts of Japan were bracing for more rain and heavy winds later in the day, the country’s public broadcaster reported.

Most of Japan was under some form of advisory related to heavy rain or potential flooding on Friday afternoon, according to the national meteorological agency. But the warnings are expected to taper over the weekend as the storm moves back out into the Pacific Ocean.

Mawar battered the U.S. territory of Guam last week with the force of a Category 4 hurricane, knocking out power across much of the island. The Guam Power Authority said on Thursday that its crews were still working to repair the electricity grid.

This week, Mawar weakened as it inched west across the Pacific toward the Philippines and Taiwan. It did not make landfall in either place, although some coastal areas received heavy rain.

As a precaution, thousands of residents in the northern parts of the Philippines, including Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island, were evacuated.

Because the Philippines gives its own names to typhoons that enter its so-called area of responsibility, a large area of the Western Pacific, the storm was known locally as Betty.

Livia Albeck-Ripka, Claire Fahy, Christine Hauser, Hikari Hida, Mike Ives, Jesus Jiménez, Judson Jones, Victoria Kim, Anastasia Marks, Lauren McCarthy, Eduardo Medina, Motoko Rich and Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.