Powerful typhoon heads to Okinawa

TOKYO (AFP) - A powerful typhoon was heading Thursday towards Japan, with strong winds en route to hit the southern archipelago of Okinawa, meteorologists said.

Man-Yi (locally called Typhoon "Bebeng"), the fourth typhoon of the season, was packing winds of 167 kilometres an hour (104 miles an hour) and moving northwest at 26 kilometres (16 miles) an hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The typhoon has "extremely strong" gusts of up to 234 kilometres (146 miles) an hour, it said.

The typhoon was on course to hit Okinawa late Thursday through Friday before heading to the Osaka area in western mainland Japan. It may cross the Tokyo region on Sunday.

Man-Yi is named after a strait that is now a reservoir in Hong Kong.
Japan and other nations in the western Pacific are hit each year by lethal typhoons. Last year, Typhoon Shanshan killed nine people in Japan and injured 300 others.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Bebeng will not directly affect any part of the country but the storm will induce the southwest monsoon (habagat) to bring more rains in the country, particularly over Visayas and Mindanao.