Tajik President Emomali yesterday sent a cable of condolences to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the devastating typhoon that hit Japan on October 12 leaving dozens dead and many missing, according to the Tajik president’s official website.

A message of condolences, in particular, says that the president is saddened by reports of loss of life and extensive destruction caused by Typhoon Hagibis in Japan.

Emomali Rahmon extended his deep condolences to the families of the victims, the Government and people of Japan.  He wished a speedy recovery to those who were injured.  

Typhoon Hagibis was a large and powerful tropical cyclone that was considered to be the most devastating typhoon to hit the Kanto region of Japan since Ida in 1958.  Hagibis caused additional impacts to Japan, after Faxai struck the same region one month prior.  The nineteenth named storm and the ninth typhoon of the 2019 Pacific typhoon season, Hagibis developed from a tropical wave located a couple hundred miles north of the Marshall Islands on October 2.  The system reached tropical storm status late on October 5 as it travelled westward.  Soon afterwards, Hagibis underwent a period of rapid intensification, which brought Hagibis to its peak intensity on October 7.  After maintaining the peak intensity for about three days, Hagibis began to weaken due to less favorable environment.  On October 12, Hagibis made landfall at Izu Peninsula as a Category 2–equivalent typhoon. Hagibis became extratropical on the following day.

Hagibis caused widespread damage across Japan, particularly in the Kanto region.  As of October 14, 2019, 70 people have been confirmed dead and 14 went missing in Japan.  Early on October 12, Hagibis triggered a tornado in Ichihara City.  About half an hour before Hagibis made landfall, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chiba Prefecture, worsening the dangerous condition even more

Hagibis is likely to be a multi-billion-dollar disaster, with extensive damages to homes, businesses, and some of Japan’s fabled (and it turns out, expensive) bullet trains.