Toyota to close 11 plants over Typhoon scare near Tokyo

At least four people died and two were missing in Japan as typhoon Roke bore down on Tokyo on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds and disturbing transport systems, public broadcaster NHK said.

Toyota Motor Corp plans to close 11 factories in central Japan early on Wednesday, eliminating evening shifts, while utility Chubu Electric Power has lost about 1,870 megawatts of hydro power output due to the typhoon. The affected plants are all in Aichi prefecture in central Japan, which sits in the expected path of Typhoon Roke

The bigger concern with Typhoon Roke is that the massive storm is slowly making its way towards the same Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was badly damaged by the tsunami and earthquake that battered Japan in March. Tokyo Electric, who owns the Fukushima nuclear plant, stated that there has been no additional damage to the nuclear facility but the plant management is concern about the rising levels of radioactive water in the turbine buildings.

The plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was unaffected by typhoon Talas, which hit Japan earlier this month and left about 100 people dead or missing.


Watch the accompanies Video of Typhoon Roke in Japan

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