Tokyo unscathed as weakening typhoon brushes by, heads north

Japan's capital of Tokyo was unscathed on Thursday after a weakening typhoon brushed by it and headed north, pounding the coastline with rain and high winds, with scores of cancelled flights, and some power outages, in its wake.

Though typhoon "Shanshan," a Chinese girl's name, had been predicted to possibly make landfall near Tokyo, a northeasterly twist to its course kept it out at sea and spared the capital more than high winds and heavy rains, which had mostly dissipated by morning.

By late morning the centre of the storm was in the Pacific just off the city of Mito, about 100 km (62 miles) northeast of Tokyo, and set to weaken to tropical storm strength within hours as it moves further east into the Pacific.

Around 100 domestic flights were cancelled and some trains, and there were about 2,000 households without power, but Tokyo's vast transportation system was operating mostly as usual.

Japan has suffered from one weather disaster after another in the last six weeks, including a deadly heatwave that has left at least 120 dead around the nation. The heat is set to return to Tokyo later on Thursday, with highs of 33 Celsius (91 Fahrenheit) predicted for the next few days.