Unprecedented Rain Hits Japan’s Chiba, Claiming 8 Lives

The wet‑test week of the year has turned into a nightmare. From Thursday afternoon, Chiba Prefecture received more than 100 mm of rain each hour – roughly three times the average rainfall for August – setting a national record and leaving thousands with no electricity.

Eight people lost their lives in the floods. A woman drowned inside her submerged car, while two others collapsed on streets and later died in hospital. The Japan Meteorological Agency called the storm “an unprecedented level of heavy rain,” and Chiba Governor Toshihito Kumagai said it was “a case like no other” he had ever seen.

The deluge caused widespread chaos. Hundreds of trains were suspended and several major highways shut, while flight traffic at Narita International Airport splintered, leaving 1,800 people stranded overnight at the airport’s administrative center.

Large‑scale evacuations were ordered for more than 100,000 households after landslides and power outages reported on Thursday. “The power is out so I’m worried whether I can open my business in the next couple of days,” one shop owner told the media.

The storm is part of a series of back‑to‑back typhoons impacting Japan, the Philippines and China this week, with Dolphins, Chan‑Hom and Peilou churning across the region and hitting Okinawa Island and eastern China.

Cars were left abandoned in the streets of Oamishirasato, in Chiba