Chiba typhoon losses reach 2.6 billion yen as next disaster threatens to outpace recovery

Farm, forestry and fishery losses in Chiba Prefecture from Typhoon Dujuan have climbed to about 2.6 billion yen, and the figure is still rising. For the prefecture east of Tokyo, the larger problem may be timing: the damage is being counted in the middle of a typhoon season that has already delivered three costly rain disasters in two months, with repairs to flood defenses only beginning.

The tally has moved quickly. The prefectural government put damage to the sector at about 87 million yen on Sept 24, three days after the storm passed. By Sept 28 it stood at roughly 1.7 billion yen across 44 of Chiba's 54 municipalities, led by about 834 million yen in damage to farmland and agricultural facilities, 534 million yen in crop losses and 273 million yen at fishery facilities. Flooded rice paddies alone covered about 1,345 hectares. Officials say surveys are continuing and some facilities have yet to be assessed.

Dujuan, the 25th typhoon of the season, skirted Japan's Pacific coast on Sept 21 and 22 and dumped record rain on the Kanto region. Parts of Chiba received more than 450 millimetres over three days, according to the land ministry, while the island of Oshima recorded 832 millimetres in 48 hours. At least 11 people died in Chiba and neighbouring Kanagawa, most of them in landslides.

The heaviest agricultural damage followed the failure of embankments at Inbanuma, the large lake in northern Chiba. The lake's western basin reached a record 5.04 metres, above its maximum safe level of 4.25 metres, and embankments were breached at four points, flooding homes, paddies and roads around Narita, Sakura and Sakae.

At the Tani Fish Farm in Narita, nearly all of about 100,000 ornamental koi carp were swept away days before the sales season was due to open. Owner Kenji Tani put the loss to his business alone at about 1 billion yen, an estimate that suggests the official total has further to run. A local fisheries cooperative lost most of its 50,000 farmed eels.

Dujuan was the third blow in a row. Torrential rain in August caused about 8.22 billion yen of damage to the same sector in 33 Chiba municipalities, and a further downpour in early September added around 230 million yen in 17 municipalities, Kyodo News reported. A prefectural official told the agency that the typhoon's impact was spread more widely than the August floods. One rice farmer near the lake, who lost three-quarters of his paddies along with his combine harvester and dryer, told The Japan News he did not know whether he could keep farming.

Chiba has been here before. In September 2019, Typhoon Faxai damaged more than 36,000 homes in the prefecture and caused farm and fishery losses of more than 26 billion yen. Typhoon Hagibis struck about five weeks later, and on Oct 25 of that year a further bout of heavy rain killed 10 people, most of them in Chiba, while many levees breached by Hagibis were still unrepaired. One resident told public broadcaster NHK at the time that the rain had been heavier than during the typhoon.

The same exposure exists now. Inbanuma's embankments are broken, slopes are saturated, and some rail sections in Chiba are not expected to reopen for about three months. Typhoon No. 26 formed within days of Dujuan's departure, and the season runs through October. Tani told Kyodo there was nothing his farm could do if another typhoon approached.

Scientists say a warmer atmosphere holds more water, intensifying heavy rain events. For Chiba, that turns recovery into a race: the final bill for Dujuan may matter less than whether levees, pumps and farm equipment are back in place before the next storm arrives.

CONTACT: https://www.mlit.go.jp/common/002024396.pdf