TOKYO: A powerful typhoon was beating a path towards Japan on Thursday and was forecast to brush past Tokyo over the weekend before veering back into the Pacific.
Typhoon Yagi, whose name means "goat" in Japanese, is a Category 4 storm, just a notch below a Category 5 super typhoon. At 0000 GMT, the storm was 650 km southwest of Japan's westernmost point, the remote island of Minamitorishima, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The island has no native population but hosts a weather station and coast guard and navy facilities.
Wind speeds were up to about 160 km per hour near the storm's centre, the agency said.
Yagi was moving west at 25 km per hour and was forecast to weaken before coming within several hundred kilometres of the densely populated capital over the weekend.
The storm follows Typhoon Shanshan, whose heavy rains and high winds killed nine people and injured hundreds in southwestern Japan last weekend.
