TOKYO, Sept 11 —Typhoon Danas headed out to sea after clawing north across Japan on Tuesday, leaving five people dead, at least two missing and flooding hundreds of homes before gradually weakening.
"The wind is dropping off," an official at the meteorological agency said. "It will not regain its former strength."
The storm, the second typhoon to hit Japan in less than a month, passed through the huge Tokyo metropolitan area, home to about 12 million people, shortly before noon, bringing down several trees and sending pedestrians scurrying for cover.
Danas also snarled transport nationwide and forced officials to order families to evacuate their homes for fear of flooding.
As of 6 p.m. (0900 GMT), gusts in the storm's centre had weakened to around 83 kph (52 mph) from 108 kph (67 mph) earlier.
It had passed through the Tokyo metropolitan area and was last located heading northeast in the Pacific Ocean, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Iwaki, a city approximately 180 km (112 miles) northeast of Tokyo.
The typhoon gathered speed slightly, moving northeast along Japan's Pacific Ocean coast at around 30 kph (19 mph).
Danas—a Philippine word meaning to experience—made landfall at around 11:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) near the ancient city of Kamakura, a seafront suburb of Tokyo.
Angry waves lashed breakwaters and rivers were swollen from the heavy rains. Officials said some 221 households had been advised to evacuate due to the threat of floods and mudslides, and NHK national television said nearly 1,000 people had done so.
Nearly 400 houses were flooded.
Fire Agency officials said five people had died, four of them after being engulfed in mudslides. The other fatality was a 50-year-old man who fell from the roof of his house while carrying out repairs.
Some 15 people were injured, NHK said.
Second typhoon
But as Danas retreated, Japan was coming under threat from another typhoon.
Nari, which means lily in Korean, was churning slowly eastward on Tuesday through waters near southern Okinawa prefecture, threatening to bring heavy rains and winds to the island chain some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) south of Tokyo.
As of 6 p.m. (0900 GMT), Nari was was gathering momentum, moving slowly northeast and packing gusts of around 144 kph (89 mph) at its centre.
"This typhoon is getting stronger and stronger," an official for the meteorological agency said. The official said there were no signs yet that Nari may head toward the Japanese mainland, but added that its future movements were hard to predict.
Late last month, Typhoon Pabuk swept through Japan, killing six people, flooding thousands of houses and disrupting air, sea and rail traffic.
Tokyo in typhoon line
Violent winds and torrential rain from Danas lashed downtown Tokyo during the morning, sending pedestrians scurrying as they clutched their umbrellas with both hands.
Disruption was reported in some sections of the metropolitan railway system, but by mid-afternoon services were normal.
Several trees were blown down across streets in the downtown Akasaka area, crushing one car, but no injuries were reported, Kyodo news agency said.
As of midafternoon, around 870 mm (34 inches) of rain had fallen in parts of the town of Nikko, north of Tokyo, in the past four days—more than one-third its annual rainfall.
Ferry services between Honshu and outlying islands were disrupted, more than 140 domestic and international flights cancelled, and services on a number of train lines in and around Tokyo cut back.
Bullet trains on lines linking Tokyo and the central prefecture of Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics, were suspended for a second day and trains moved slowly on other lines but services here, too, were largely normal by mid-afternoon.
With additional reporting by Elaine Lies