Typhoon Fitow heads for Japan, may hit Tokyo

Typography
A typhoon moving towards Japan was forecast on Wednesday to hit a region near Tokyo later in the week and bring heavy rains and strong winds to the capital. Typhoon Fitow, which means "beautiful fragrant flower" in a Micronesian language, was located some 650 km (400 miles) south of Tokyo and moving northwest at 15 km (9.4 miles) per hour as of 4 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A typhoon moving towards Japan was forecast on Wednesday to hit a region near Tokyo later in the week and bring heavy rains and strong winds to the capital.


Typhoon Fitow, which means "beautiful fragrant flower" in a Micronesian language, was located some 650 km (400 miles) south of Tokyo and moving northwest at 15 km (9.4 miles) per hour as of 4 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.


Bringing with it winds gusting up to 126 km per hour, the storm was forecast to approach the island of Hachijojima, about 300 km south of Tokyo, by Thursday morning, the agency said.


According to U.K.-based Web site Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com), Fitow was currently classified as a category 1 typhoon, but was forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by 2 a.m. EDT on Thursday.


In July, a powerful typhoon, Man-yi, left three people dead and over 70 injured after it hit the southern island of Kyushu and moved along the country's eastern coastline.


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