Weather

Typhoon Dujuan Skirts Japan, Triggers Deadly Landslides

Is Japan's record rainfall proof of a climate crisis demanding adaptation or do typhoon records expose alarmism?

Published SEP 21

Typhoon Dujuan Skirts Japan, Triggers Deadly Landslides

Story

Above: Flooding inundates a park as heavy rain falls due to Typhoon Dujuan in Ichikawa, Chiba, on Sept. 21. Image credit: JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

Typhoon Dujuan passed near Japan's eastern Pacific coast Monday evening without making landfall, moving northeast at about 35 kph, roughly 130 kilometers from Katsuura in Chiba Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
BBC News
The Japan News by the Yomiuri Shimbun
The Japan Times
The weather agency issued its highest Level 5 landslide warning for the northern Izu Islands, while Level 4 alerts covered parts of Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa and Ibaraki prefectures. Tokyo was later downgraded to a Level 2 advisory.
BBC News
Kyodo News+
Izu Oshima recorded 672.5 millimeters of rain in the 24 hours through 4:40 p.m. Monday. Forecasters said total rainfall through Tuesday could exceed September's average monthly total.
The Guardian
The Telegraph
The Japan Times
In Yokosuka, Kanagawa, a man reported at about 1:55 p.m. local time that a hillside behind his home collapsed, burying his wife — firefighters subsequently began a search for the woman, believed to be in her 60s.
BBC News
The Japan News by the Yomiuri Shimbun
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported one death in Miyazaki Prefecture and a woman in her 40s injured in a landslide in Sodegaura, Chiba. Roughly nine houses were damaged, some of them submerged.
Japan Today
UPI
The Japan Times
Japan Airlines canceled 135 flights amid the weather, and All Nippon Airways scrapped 140 domestic flights on Monday. At Haneda Airport, 351 flights were canceled and 631 were delayed, while Narita recorded 153 cancellations.
Japan Today
The Telegraph

Sources Split

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The Spin

Climate-concerned narrative

Climate change is no conspiracy theory, and Japan's weather proves it. Record-shattering rainfall of 367 mm in 24 hours, sewers backing up, and level 4 danger alerts show that the old faith in flood-proof cities no longer holds, while extreme downpours have grown roughly 1.5 to 1.8 times more frequent over the past four decades. The only responsible choice is to adapt to this more extreme era and take steps to stop it getting any worse.

Nikkei Science on X

Hiro Yoshida on X

Climate-skeptic narrative

Blaming every violent storm on warming ignores what typhoon records actually show. Counts of storms forming, approaching and striking Japan peaked between 1951 and 1970 and have declined since 2001; there is no meaningful change in average minimum pressure, no rise in super typhoons and no lengthening of the season.